From The International Library of Masterpieces, Literature, Art, and Rare Manuscripts, Volume XXX, Editor-in-Chief: Harry Thurston Peck; The International Bibliophile Society, New York; 1901; p. 11122.
WIILLARD, EMMA (HART), an American educator, historian, and poet; born at New Berlin, Conn., February 23, 1787; died at Troy, N. Y., April 15, 1870. She was educated in the Academy in Hartford, Conn., and at sixteen began to teach. She was principal of various schools in Vermont and New York until 1821, at which time she founded the Troy Female Seminary. In 1809 she was married to Dr. John Willard, United States Marshal for Vermont. She wrote many popular school-books, and lectured extensively on questions of educational interest. She was the author of “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,” and much other verse. Among her educational works are “History of the United States” (1828); “Universal History in Perspective” (1837).
ROCKED in the cradle of the deep
I lay me down in peace to sleep;
Secure I rest upon the wave,
For Thou, O Lord! hast power to save.
I know thou wilt not slight my call,
For Thou dost mark the sparrow’s fall,
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.
When in the dead of night I lie
And gaze upon the trackless sky,
The star-bespangled, heavenly scroll,
The boundless waters as they roll —
I feel Thy wondrous power to save
From perils of the stormy wave:
Rocked in the cradle of the deep,
I calmly rest and soundly sleep.
And such the trust that still were mine,
Though stormy winds swept o’er the brine,
Or though the tempest’s fiery breath
Roused me from sleep to wreck and death.
In ocean cave still safe with Thee,
The germ of immortality!
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.