"Now I Lay Me"

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Title:     "Now I Lay Me"
Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox [More Titles by Wilcox]

When I pass from earth away,
Palsied though I be and grey,
May my spirit keep so young
That my failing, faltering tongue
Frames that prayer so dear to me,
Taught me at my mother's knee:
"_Now I lay me down to sleep_,"
(Passing to Eternal rest
On the loving parent breast)
"_I pray the Lord my soul to keep_;"
(From all danger safe and calm
In the hollow of His palm;)
"_If I should die before I wake_,"
(Drifting with a bated breath
Out of slumber into death,)
"_I pray the Lord my soul to take_."
(From the body's claim set free
Sheltered in the Great to be.)
Simple prayer of trust and truth.
Taught me in my early youth--
Let my soul its beauty keep
When I lay me down to sleep.

[The end]
Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem: "Now I Lay Me"

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