• Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
    Make me a child again just for to-night!
    Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
    Take me again to your heart as of yore;
    Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
    Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;
    Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;—
    Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to...

  • Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
    Make me a child again just for to-night!
    Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
    Take me again to your heart as of yore;
    Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
    Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;
    Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;—
    Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to...

  •  “He giveth his belovèd sleep.”
    —PSALM cxxvii. 2.    

    OF all the thoughts of God that are
    Borne inward unto souls afar,
    Among the Psalmist’s music deep,
    Now tell me if that any is,
    For gift or grace, surpassing this,—
    “He giveth his belovèd sleep”?

    What would we give to our beloved?
    The hero’s heart, to be unmoved,—...