Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1164

 CHARLES WILLIAMS 957 A Dream

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��O more in any house can I be at peace, Because of a house that waits, far off or near, To-morrow or (likelier) after many a year, Where a room and a door are that shall fulfil my fear.

��For last night, dreaming, I stood in a house and saw Softly the room door open, and one came in, Its owner, and as round the edge his evil grin Peep'd ere he pass'd, I knew him for visible Sin.

Unwash'd, unshaven, frowsy, abominable, In a green greasy hat, a green greasy coat, Loose-mouth 'd, with silent tread and the smell of the goat, He stole in, and helplessness stifled rage in my throat.

For this was he who came long since to my heart,

This was he who enter'd the house of my soul long ago;

Now he possesses imagination, and O

I shall meet him yet in some brick-built house, I know.

He shall come, he shall turn from the long parch'd street

he treads

For ever, shuffling, hand rubb'd over hand unclean, Servile yet masterful, with satiate spleen Watching his houses, and muttering of things obscene.

He shall come to my flesh as he came last night to my dream ; Eyes shall know him as soul and insight have known ; Though all the world be there, I shall stand alone Watching him peer and enter and find out his own.

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