Ellen Lakshmi Goreh (11 September 1853 – 1937) was an Indian poet, Christian missionary, deaconess, and nurse.

[2] Her mother died in 1853,[3] and the infant Ellen was raised by white Westerners,[4] including indigo planters named Smailes, and then by missionaries, Rev.

[7] Encouraged by English evangelist Frances Ridley Havergal,[8][9] Goreh returned to India as a missionary in 1880.

[4] Her first published collection, From India's Coral Strand (1883),[10] features poetry with Christian missionary themes, informed by Goreh's experience as an Indian woman among Westerners.

", in which she implores white Christian women to listen to the real concerns of their oppressed sisters over exotic fictional accounts: "This is no romantic story / Not an idle, empty tale / Not a vain farfetched ideal / No, your sisters' woes are real / Let their pleading tones prevail..."[7] One of her poems became the widely-known hymn "In the Secret of His Presence", with music by American composer George Coles Stebbins; her lyrics explore themes of safety and refuge.