"Vogue" Ballerina on Horse Statue at The Condé Nast Store
Is there a link between this photograph and Bishop's poem? The photograph was published in the December 15, 1937 issue of
Vogue. Bishop's "Cirque d'Hiver" was published in the New Yorker on January 27, 1940.
I have a mind of winter, am interested in the dressage of formal poetry, and sometimes feel the big tin key that runs through me, as well. Anagrams/synonyms of pamela--am pale/I'm pale/impale.
Cirque D’Hiver - Elizabeth Bishop
Across the floor flits the mechanical toy,
fit for a king of several centuries back.
A little circus horse with real white hair.
His eyes are glossy black.
He bears a little dancer on his back.
She stands upon her toes and turns and turns.
A slanting spray of artificial roses
is stitched across her skirt and tinsel bodice.
Above her head she poses
another spray of artificial roses.
His mane and tail are straight from Chirico.
He has a formal, melancholy soul.
He feels her pink toes dangle toward his back
along the little pole
that pierces both her body and her soul
and goes through his, and reappears below,
under his belly, as a big tin key.
He canters three steps, then he makes a bow,
canters again, bows on one knee,
canters, then clicks and stops, and looks at me.
The dancer, by this time, has turned her back.
He is the more intelligent by far.
Facing each other rather desperately—
his eye is like a star—
we stare and say, “Well, we have come this far.”
