Poem In Your Pocket Day Poem Summary

Poem in Your Pocket Day originally began in April of 2002 in celebration of New York City’s National Poetry Month. The Mayor of New York, along with the Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, introduced Poem in Your Pocket Day to the residents of New York City. Residents were encourage to select a poem, carry it with them throughout the day, and share it with others. In 2008, the entire country was encouraged by the Academy of American Poets to join the poetry day making it a national celebration of poetry. In celebration of Poem in Your Pocket Day the poem “Rock Me to Sleep” by Elizabeth Akers Allen was recited by memory to family and heartfelt feedback was given about the meaning and interpretation of the poem. In the beautifully sad poem “Rock Me to Sleep” the author yearns for her mother and a less troubled life.
The author uses couplets throughout the poem and one example of a couplet would be, “Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight / Make me a child again just for tonight!” (1-2). According to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary a couplet is “two successive lines of verse forming a unit marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme or the inclusion of a self-contained utterance” (299). A metaphor is used for the empty, silence of her mother’s voice which is now just an “echoless shore” when the author writes, “Mother, come back from the echoless shore” (3). Even as the years have passed the daughter remembers her mother’s voice, her kiss on the forehead, her presence, and most importantly her