The Road To Ruin

My hopes, my messengers I sent
Across the ten years continent
Of Time. In dream I saw them go--
And thought, 'When they come back I'll show
To what far place I lead my friends
Where this disastrous decade ends.'
Like one in purgatory, I learned
The loss of hope. For none returned,
And long in darkening dream I lay.
Then came a ghost whose warning breath
Gasped from an agony of death,
'No, not that way; no, not that way.'