Long, long, long the trail <br />Through the brooding forest-gloom, <br />Down the shadowy, lonely vale <br />Into silence, like a room <br />Where the light of life has fled, <br />And the jealous curtains close <br />Round the passionless repose <br />Of the silent dead. <br /> <br />Plod, plod, plod away, <br />Step by step in mouldering moss; <br />Thick branches bar the day <br />Over languid streams that cross <br />Softly, slowly, with a sound <br />In their aimless creeping <br />Like a smothered weeping, <br />Through the enchanted ground. <br /> <br />"Yield, yield, yield thy quest," <br />Whispers through the woodland deep; <br />"Come to me and be at rest; <br />"I am slumber, I am sleep." <br />Then the weary feet would fail, <br />But the never-daunted will <br />Urges "Forward, forward still! <br />"Press along the trail!" <br /> <br />Breast, breast, breast the slope! <br />See, the path is growing steep. <br />Hark! a little song of hope <br />When the stream begins to leap. <br />Though the forest, far and wide, <br />Still shuts out the bending blue, <br />We shall finally win through, <br />Cross the long divide. <br /> <br />On, on, onward tramp! <br />Will the journey never end? <br />Over yonder lies the camp; <br />Welcome waits us there, my friend. <br />Can we reach it ere the night? <br />Upward, upward, never fear! <br />Look, the summit must be near; <br />See the line of light! <br /> <br />Red, red, red the shine <br />Of the splendour in the west, <br />Glowing through the ranks of pine, <br />Clear along the mountain-crest! <br />Long, long, long the trail <br />Out of sorrow's lonely vale; <br />But at last the traveller sees <br />Light between the trees!<br /><br />Henry Van Dyke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/light-between-the-trees/
