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Rock me to sleep, mother

Author: Elizabeth A. Allen Appears in 3 hymnals First Line: Backward, turn backward, O time Refrain First Line: Clasped to your heart

[Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight]

Appears in 1 hymnal Composer and/or Arranger: Chas. H. Gabriel Used With Text: Rock Me to Sleep

Instances

Published text-tune combinations (hymns) from specific hymnals

Hymnal: Progressive Sunday School Songs #178 (1923) First Line: Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight Refrain First Line: Backward, O tide of the years Lyrics: 1 Backward, turn backward, O 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 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 sleep. Refrain: Backward, O tide of the years! I am so weary of toil and of tears; Weary of sowing for others to reap; Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. 2 Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue, Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you! Many a summer the grass has grown green, Blossomed and faded our faces between, Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain, Long I tonight for your presence again; Come from the silence so long and so deep, Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. [Refrain] 3 Mother, dear mother, the years have been long Since last I listened your lullaby song; Sing, then! and unto my soul it shall seem Years that are gone have been only a dream. Held to your heart in a loving embrace, With your light lashes just sweeping my face, Never hereafter to wake or to weep, Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. [Refrain] Topics: Mother's Day Languages: English Tune Title: [Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight]

Rock me to sleep, mother

Author: Elizabeth A. Allen Hymnal: Favorite Songs #d9 (1907) First Line: Backward, turn backward, O time Languages: English

Rock me to sleep, mother

Author: Elizabeth A. Allen Hymnal: Praise Him #d18 (1929) First Line: Backward, turn backward, O time Refrain First Line: Clasped to your heart

People

Authors, composers, editors, etc.

Chas. H. Gabriel

1856 - 1932 Composer of "[Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight]" in Progressive Sunday School Songs Pseudonyms: C. D. Emerson, Charlotte G. Homer, S. B. Jackson, A. W. Lawrence, Jennie Ree ============= For the first seventeen years of his life Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (b. Wilton, IA, 1856; d. Los Angeles, CA, 1932) lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades. Bert Polman

Elizabeth Akers Allen

1832 - 1911 Author of "Rock Me to Sleep" Allen, Elizabeth (Chase) Akers. (Strong, Maine, October 9, 1832-August 7, 1911, Tuckahow, NY). Daughter of Thomas and Mercy Barton Chase. Married Marshall Taylor (1851-1857), Paul Akers (1860-1861), and Elijah M. Allen (1865-1911). Attended Farmington (Maine) Academy (later Maine State Teachers College). Taught briefly. Associate editor in Portland, Maine, of the Transcript (1855-1859) and the Daily Advertiser (1863-1865) and volunteer worker among the hospitalized soldiers. Contribute of essays, letters, and poems to various newspapers and magazines (chiefly the Atlantic Monthly) from her fifteenth year on, using the pseudonym "Florence Percy" for the first few years. Published her poems in book form from time to time. Allen was one of the favorite household poets of her time, but is now remembered chiefly for one poem, "Rock me to sleep, mother," first published in 1860. Its well-known opening lines are: Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight, Make me a child again just for tonight. -Anastasia Van Burkalow, DNAH Archives