Poem by Charles Williams

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'?