Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By Eugene HenryPullen896 Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
“N
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,”
Was my childhood’s early prayer
Taught by my mother’s love and care.
Many years since then have fled;
Mother slumbers with the dead;
Yet methinks I see her now,
With love-lit eye and holy brow,
As, kneeling by her side to pray,
She gently taught me how to say,
“Now I lay me down to sleep:
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”
Oh! could its little hymns of praise,
Oh! could its simple, joyous trust
Be recreated from the dust
That lies around a wasted life,
The fruit of many a bitter strife!
Oh! then at night in prayer I ’d bend,
And call my God, my Father, Friend,
And pray with childlike faith once more
The prayer my mother taught of yore,—
“Now I lay me down to sleep:
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.”