"The Darkest Hour"

The Darkest Hour

The darkest hour is just before the dawn; 

Turn from the deep, black valley of Despair, 

And see the roses blooming everywhere, 

In the lowliest spot as on the nurtured lawn. 

There, shuddering in the wood the sweet-eyed fawn, 

Crouching until the storm has spent its force, 

Then with new courage leaping on its course; 

So, when the darkest hour has passed, the dawn! 

O Hope, thou shalt not die till life be gone! 

For he who fights, whatever fate befall, 

Let him be true, and he will conquer all; 

The darkest hour is just before the dawn. 

"The Darkest Hour" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems (1903).

"The Darkest Hour" as it appears in Ella Higginson's Four-Leaf Clover (1901).