Explore "Now I Lay Me" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.