The Circus In The West

All through the little prairie town
'Mid dusty levels broad and brown
I saw the Circus pacing on;
I felt its vague barbaric spell,
I smelt the queer old circus smell
As old Rome or Babylon.

The tinsel gleamed, the big drum rolled,
The ponies pranced and caracoled
In gaudy gilt caparison;
And still beneath it was the strange
Sad undertone of Time and Change, —
As erst in vanished Babylon.

I saw where, wrinkled, grey and wise,
With swaying gait and brooding eyes,
The elephants went pacing on,
Unmoved amid the gaping throng,
As if they only thought: "How long —
How far from here to Babylon?"

No longer than this restless hour,
Its lust and folly, pride and power,
To-day as in the ages gone:
No further than this feverish, queer,
New town which was not yesteryear
Need mankind seek for Babylon.

New towns in strange new lands arise;
But old as earth and stars and skies
The Circus of the world goes on;
Still traveling on its ancient round
Where'er man's dust of dreams is found —
Here — now — to-day — in Babylon.