Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.

British America: Quebec, Canada

To the Ursulines

By Caroline Gilman (1794–1888)

O PURE and gentle ones, within your ark

Securely rest!

Blue be the sky above,—your quiet bark

By soft winds blest!

Still toil in duty and commune with heaven,

World-weaned and free;

God to his humblest creatures room has given,

And space to be.

Space for the eagle in the vaulted sky

To plume his wing,—

Space for the ring-dove by her young to lie,

And softly sing.

Space for the sunflower, bright with yellow glow,

To court the sky,—

Space for the violet, where the wild woods grow,

To live and die.

Space for the ocean in its giant might

To swell and rave,—

Space for the river, tinged with rosy light,

Where green banks wave.

Space for the sun, to tread his path in might,

And golden pride,—

Space for the glowworm, calling by her light

Love to her side.

Then, pure and gentle ones, within your ark

Securely rest!

Blue be the skies above, and your still bark

By kind winds blest.