The Circus-Day Parade

Oh, the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!     And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes, and neighed,     As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time     Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!     How the grand band-wagon shone with a splendor all its own,     And glittered with a glory that our dreams had never known!     And how the boys behind, high and low of every kind,     Marched in unconscious capture, with a rapture undefined!     How the horsemen, two and two, with their plumes of white and blue,     And crimson, gold and purple, nodding by at me and you.     Waved the banners that they bore, as the Knights in days of yore,     Till our glad eyes gleamed and glistened like the spangles that they wore!     How the graceless-graceful stride of the elephant was eyed,     And the capers of the little horse that cantered at his side!     How the shambling camels, tame to the plaudits of their fame,     With listless eyes came silent, masticating as they came.     How the cages jolted past, with each wagon battened fast,     And the mystery within it only hinted of at last     From the little grated square in the rear, and nosing there     The snout of some strange animal that sniffed the outer air!     And, last of all, The Clown, making mirth for all the town,     With his lips curved ever upward and his eyebrows ever down,     And his chief attention paid to the little mule that played     A tattoo on the dashboard with his heels, in the parade.     Oh! the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!     And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes and neighed.     As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time     Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!