Backward, turn backward, time in your flight
Make me a child again, just for tonight
Mother, come back from the echoless shore
Take me again to your heart like before

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair
Over my slumber your loving watch keep
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep

Backward, flow backward, tide of the years
I am so weary of toil and of tears
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain
Take them and give me my childhood again

For I have grown weary of dust and decay
Weary of flinging my soul wealth away
Weary of sowing for others to reap
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep

Mother, oh mother, my heart calls for you
Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue
Manys a summer the grass has grown green
Blossomed and faded, our faces between

Backward, oh backward, time in your flight
Make me a child again, just for tonight
Come from the silence so long and so deep
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep
Rock me to sleep