Once I knew the depth where no hope was
and darkness lay on the face of all things
Then love came and set my soul free
Once I fretted and beat myself against
the wall that shut me in,my life was without the past or future,
and death a cunsummation devoutly
to be wished.

But a little word from the fingers of another fell
into my hands that clutched at emptiness,
and my heart leaped up with the rapture of living.
I do not know the meaning of darkness,
but I have learned the overcoming of it.

_Helen Keller