Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/143



HEN I came back: to Fleet Street,

Through a sunset nook at night,

And saw the old Green Dragon

With the windows all alight,

And hailed the old Green Dragon

And the Cock I used to know,

Where all good fellows were my friends

A little while ago;

I had been long in meadows,

And the trees took hold of me,

And the still towns in the beech-woods,

Where men were meant to be.

But old things held; the laughter,

The long unnatural night,

And all the truth they talk in hell,

And all the lies they write.

For I came back: to Fleet Street,

And not in peace I came;

A cloven pride was in my heart,

And half my love was shame.