But he, at last, was free till Monday, free To sleep, to eat, to dream, to sulk, to walk, To laugh, to sing, to whistle, or to talk ... If only, through his brain, unceasingly, The wheels would not keep whirring, while the smell-- The oily smell of thick and sticky glaze Clung to his nostrils, till ’twas hard to tell If he were really out in the fresh air; And still before his eyes, the blind, white glare, And then the colours dancing in his head, A maddening maze of yellow, blue and red. So, on he wandered in a kind of daze, Too racked with sleeplessness to think of bed Save as a hell, where you must toss and toss, With colours shooting in insane criss-cross Before wide, prickling, gritty, sleepless eyes. But, as he walked along the darkening street, Too tired to rest, and far too spent to eat, The swish and patter of the passing feet, The living, human murmur, and keen cries, The deep, cool shadows of the coming night, About quick-kindling jets of clustered light; And the fresh breathing of the rain-washed air, Brought something of sweet healing to his mind; And, though he trailed along as if half-blind, Yet often on the pavement he would stop To gaze at goods displayed within a shop; And wonder, in a dull and lifeless way, What they had cost, and who’d the price to pay. But those two kinds of shop which, as a boy, Had been to him a never-failing joy, The bookshop and the fruitshop, he passed by, As if their colours seared his wincing eye; For still he feared the yellow, blue and red Would start that devils’ dancing in his head. And soon, through throngs of people, almost gay To be let loose from work, he pushed his way; And ripples of their careless laughter stole Like waves of cooling waters through his soul, While sometimes he would lift his aching eyes, And see a child’s face, flushed with proud surprise, As, gripping both its parents’ hands quite tight, It found itself in fairylands of light, Walking with grown-up people through the night: Then, turning, with a shudder he would see Poor painted faces, leering frightfully, And so drop back from heaven again to hell.