The path by which we twain did go, <br /> Which led by tracts that pleased us well, <br /> Thro' four sweet years arose and fell, <br /> From flower to flower, from snow to snow: <br /> And we with singing cheer'd the way, <br /> And, crown'd with all the season lent, <br /> From April on to April went, <br /> And glad at heart from May to May: <br /> But where the path we walk'd began <br /> To slant the fifth autumnal slope, <br /> As we descended following Hope, <br /> There sat the Shadow fear'd of man; <br /> <br /> Who broke our fair companionship, <br /> And spread his mantle dark and cold, <br /> And wrapt thee formless in the fold, <br /> And dull'd the murmur on thy lip, <br /> <br /> And bore thee where I could not see <br /> Nor follow, tho' I walk in haste, <br /> And think, that somewhere in the waste <br /> The Shadow sits and waits for me.<br /><br />Alfred Lord Tennyson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-memoriam-a-h-h-22-the-path-by-which-we-twain/
