Like a long dream the road stretches out behind me
Until it fades over the crest of the hill,
And all that road I have trodden. How can I remind me
That I who followed that road am the self-same still?

Lord, what a road! Do you see how it winds and doubles,
Turns like an eel, then stretches itself out straight:
Goes for a mile in joy, then flounders in troubles,
Sinks in the mud, or comes to a five-barred gate?

And there the sky is delicate as a wild rose,
Blushing and pale as the first faint touch of spring:
Gay with the gaiety only a little child knows:
Vibrant with sound of the bells which laughters ring.

And there 'tis dark and vivid with angled lightning,
Hobgoblins chatter and mumble into his ear;
He sweats his young blood: swears it is nothing frightening:
Bites on his lip and knows the terrors of fear.

There he scarce walks, travelling with a companion
Whose hand to hold is heaven, whose eyes to see
Make the dull act of walking an abandon,
And the day's journey unconscious ecstasy.

And there he goes through the dank chill mists of evening
Plodding for countless boggling miles alone,
While the ghosts of loneliness grieve as they hover, weaving
An endless chant in monotonous monotone.

And suddenly there are meadows ablaze with sorrel,
Buttercups glowing like suns, and tall marguerites,
Where the brook and the long low boughs of the willow tree quarrel,
For the willow protests, and the water for ever entreats.

And who's that calling his name across the meadow?
And who's that leaping the buttercups like a deer?
And who's that walking at night with his happy head so
Uplifted, the moon and the stars are familiar and near?

Then look at the dangerous quarry the road drops into;
Hawks hover above it by day, and bats wheel right
Round the edge at evening, till slowly the owls begin to
Hoot their foreboding cries through the echoing night.

And now it's a slogging, wearisome, everyday journey,
And now it's a dance the gods become envious to join,
And now it's a way from which nothing in heaven could turn me,
And now it's a path I would change on the toss of a coin.

But when I look back on this road for the very last time,
Do you know how I shall recognise it for my own?
I shall see all the faces of those I loved in past time
In their shining intrinsic beauty, and see them alone.