The great road stretched before them, clear and still,

Then from in front one cried: “Turn back! Turn back!”

Yet they had never seen so fine a track,

Honest and frank past any thought of ill.

But when they glanced behind, how strange, how strange,

These wild demented windings in and out—

Traced by some devil of mischief or of doubt?—

That was the road they had come by. Could it change?

How could they penetrate that perilous maze

Backwards, again, climb backwards down the scree

From the wrong side, slither among the dead?

Yet as they travelled on, for many days

These words rang in their ears as if they said,

“There was another road you did not see.”