Xci

Why, Schumann's "Carnival"! My choice chimed in, you see, exactly with the sounds And sights of yestereve, when, going on my rounds, Where both roads join the bridge, I heard across the dusk Creak a slow caravan, and saw arrive the husk O' the spice-nut, which peeled off this morning, and displayed, 'Twixt tree and tree, a tent whence the red pennon made Its vivid reach for home and ocean-idleness-- And where, my heart surmised, at that same moment,--yes,-- Tugging her tricot on--yet tenderly, lest stitch Announce the crack of doom, reveal disaster which Our Pornic's modest stock of merceries in vain Were ransacked to retrieve,--there, cautiously a-strain, (My heart surmised) must crouch in that tent's corner, curved Like Spring-month's russet moon, some girl by fate reserved To give me once again the electric snap and spark Which prove, when finger finds out finger in the dark O' the world, there 's fire and life and truth there, link but hands And pass the secret on. Lo, link by link, expands The circle, lengthens out the chain, till one embrace Of high with low is found uniting the whole race, Not simply you and me and our Fifine, but all The world: the Fair expands into the Carnival, And Carnival again to ... ah, but that 's my dream!