(After James Thomson) <br />As I came through the Valley of Despair, <br /> As I came through the valley, onmy sight, <br /> More awful that the darkness of the night, <br />Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair, <br /> And memories of eyes that used to smile, <br /> And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle, <br />As I came through the valley. <br /> <br />As I came through the valley I could see, <br /> As I came through the valley, fair and far, <br /> As drowning men look up and see a star, <br />The fading shore of my lost Used-to-be; <br /> And like an arrow in my heart I heard <br /> The last sad notes of Hope’s expiring bird, <br />As I came through the valley. <br /> <br />As I came through the valley desolate, <br /> As I came through the valley, like a beam <br /> Of lurid lightning I beheld a gleam <br />Of Love’s great eyes that now were full of hate. <br /> Dear God! dear God! I could bear all but that; <br /> But I fell down soul-stricken, dead, thereat, <br />As I came through the valley.<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/through-the-valley/
