But higher, nobler is the task assigned
To tend the first unfoldings of the mind,
And cultivate the young expanding heart,
The task which falls to every mother’s part.
Such sacred duty thou canst well fulfil,
Wake softest feeling, richest truth instil,
Raise latent thought, and evil’s growth arrest
Within thine infant’s slowly opening breast;
And as a flower erects its head on high
To meet the bright refulgence of the sky,