We have travelled through the darkness, 
[Thou]1 and I for many days; 
Till we wondered at the sunshine, 
When at length we felt its rays.
Chill and lonely was the pathway, 
Only lighted by the snow, 
With the cutting east wind only 
To declare how we should go.
On our right, the frozen river, 
Where the drowned lay asleep’ 
On our left, the rocky mountain, so precipitously steep;
All around the gloomy shadows
Of the failures gone before; 
While the leafless branches whispered, 
We should do no less, no more.
We should falter and should stumble, 
And should fail to reach the end; 
And should die in the beginning - 
Die together, O my friend!
Die together? - ‘twas a jewel 
Which they threw us, for a stone: 
Come what might, we could remember 
That we should not be alone;
So with hands entwined the closer, 
We pressed on against the blast; 
And we bided for the daylight, 
And the daylight came at last.
First, the darkness grew to blackness, 
And we shivered in the cold; 
And we trembled, lest our fingers 
Should not keep their faithful hold;
Then a strange grey veil fell on us, - 
Was it darkness? was it light? 
And we questioned each, 
“What is it? Coming day, or coming night?”