A Keepsake Gem

Wow, it has certainly been a while since I last posted something.  You know how life gets in the way.  Anyway, I recently came across a poem that just made me stop and think.  It was written some three  hundred years ago by a woman known as Madam Guyon.  She was imprisoned several times and in several places for her religious views, one of the worst times for four years in the Bastile in France.  Her sufferings from the cold, damp walls of the prison along with the confined and contaminated air and other deprivations and hardships took a toll on her health.  She was released but banished to Blois, on the river Loire in France.  However, she has left us with a beautiful poem that I hope will help me when I feel the urge to complain.  If you homeschool, I think this would make a wonderful edition to your childrens' copywork books.

A LITTLE BIRD I AM.

"A little bird I am,
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there;
Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases thee.

"Nought have I else to do;
I sing the whole day long;
And He, whom most I love to please,
Doth listen to my song;
He caught and bound my wandering wing,
But still he bends to hear me sing.

"Thou hast an ear to hear;
A heart to love and bless;
And, though my notes were e'er so rude,
Thou wouldst not hear the less;
Because though knowest as they fall,
That Love, sweet Love, inspires them all.

"My cage confines me round,
Abroad I cannot fly;
But, though my wing is closely bound,
My heart's at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the soul.

"Oh! it is good to soar,
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose Providence I love;
And in thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind."