Mother Song
by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Soft sleeps the earth in moonlight blest;
Soft sleeps the bough above the nest;
O’er lonely depths the whippoorwill
Breathes one faint note and all is still.
Sleep, little darling; night is long–
Sleep while I sing thy cradle song.

Above thy dream the drooping flower
Blows her sweet breath from hour to hour,
And white the great moon spreads her wings,
While low, while far, the dear earth swings.
Sleep, little darling; all night long
The winds shall sing thy slumber song.

Powers of the earth and of the air
Shall have thee in their mother-care,
And hosts of heaven, together prest,
Bend over thee, their last, their best.
Hush, little darling; from the deep
Some mighty wing shall fan thy sleep.