I know not if or dark or bright

Author: Henry Alford

Alford, Henry, D.D., son of  the Rev. Henry Alford, Rector of Aston Sandford, b. at 25 Alfred Place, Bedford Row, London, Oct. 7, 1810, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in honours, in 1832. In 1833 he was ordained to the Curacy of Ampton. Subsequently he held the Vicarage of Wymeswold, 1835-1853,--the Incumbency of Quebec Chapel, London, 1853-1857; and the Deanery of Canterbury, 1857 to his death, which took. place  at  Canterbury, Jan. 12, 1871.  In addition he held several important appointments, including that of a Fellow of Trinity, and the Hulsean Lectureship, 1841-2. His literary labours extended to every department of literature, but his noblest undertaking was his edition of the Greek Testament, the result… Go to person page >

I know not if the dark or bright. H. Alford. [Resignation.] Written in 1862, and printed in Macmillan's Magazine, 1863, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. In 1865 it was included in the author's Poetical Works, and in 1884 in Horder's Congregational Hymns.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)