Through the Valley

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by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

As I came through the Valley of Despair,
        As I came through the valley, on my sight,
        More awful than the darkness of the night,
Shone glimpses of a Past that had been fair,
        And memories of eyes that used to smile,
        And wafts of perfume from a vanished isle,
As I came through the valley.

As I came through the valley I could see,
        As I came through the valley, fair and far,
        As drowning men look up and see a star,
The fading shore of my lost Used-to-be;
        And like an arrow in my heart I heard
        The last sad notes of Hope's expiring bird,
As I came through the valley.

As I came through the valley desolate,
        As I came through the valley, like a beam
        Of lurid lightning I beheld a gleam
Of Love's great eyes that now were full of hate.
        Dear God! Dear God! I could bear all but that;
        But I fell down soul-stricken, dead, thereat,
As I came through the valley.

from Poems of Passion by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1883)


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