The Way Through the Woods

They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know There was once a road through the woods Before they planted the trees. It’s under a canopy of leaves, It lies in the heart of the wood, Where the dark is densest and the sun barely weaves.

When I look at the faded tracks, That slowly burned through the green Of forest glade, I can remember when There were roads unsmooth and clean. But I pass them by, although I was led, For I love the hush of the trees, The fragrance of flowers, the heedless tryst For journey’s ends that tease.

• Rudyard Kipling