This is a terrible hour, but it is often that darkest point which precedes the rise of day--that turn of the year when the icy January wind carries over the waste at once the dirge of departing winter and the prophecy of coming spring. 
This is a terrible hour, but it is often that darkest point which precedes the rise of day - that turn of the year when the icy January wind carries both the dirge of departing winter and the prophecy of coming spring. 