By Night When Others Soundly Slept

By night when others soundly slept

And hath at once both ease and Rest,

My waking eyes were open kept

And so to lie I found it best.

I sought him whom my Soul did Love,

With tears I sought him earnestly.

He bowed his ear down from Above.

In vain I did not seek or cry.

My hungry Soul he filled with Good;

He in his Bottle put my tears,

My smarting wounds washed in his blood,

And banished thence my Doubts and fears.

What to my Saviour shall I give

Who freely hath done this for me?

I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live

And Love him to Eternity.

—Anne Bradstreet (née Dudley; March 8, 1612 – September 16, 1672, the first published writer in America and first female Puritan author. Both Anne's father and her husband were instrumental in the founding of Harvard University in 1636, which was founded to train ministers to serve churches “in the wilderness." The early motto of Harvard was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, meaning "Truth for Christ and the Church."