Ballade of a Street Door

As I came up into the town

Wherein my father's house abide,

I met a man in tattered gown,

In ragged garment blowing wide,

With terror fleet and open-eyed ;

' Ho, whither now so fast, I pray ? '

Fearfully looked he back and cried :

' I pulled the bell and ran away !

' Good sir, if thou hast held renown

Among this people, be my guide !

I from their welcome, not their frown,

In shelter would obscurely hide.

For when, being tired, a latch I tried.

Whence came a sound of revels gay.

Fear rose within me like a tide, —

I pulled the bell and ran away.

' A voice called " Bring the festal crown ! "

And running footsteps gateward hied.

Wherethrough I heard, as they came down.

Great names that challenged and replied.

And torchlight through the chinks I spied

My soul became a wild dismay.

And as the doors began to slide

I pulled the bell and ran away ! '

                         L'ENVOI

Prince, was it you and I whose pride

So turned, so fled, upon our Day ?

Was it our voices then which sighed

' I pulled the bell and ran away ' ?

Charles Williams

Poems of Conformity (1917)