Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Eugene HenryPullen

896 Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

“NOW I lay me down to sleep:

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 the faith of childhood’s days,

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.”