-thomas bailey aldrich , `` the unguarded gates , '' 1882 one moment shadow was riding the world 's largest carousel , holding on to his eagle-headed tiger , and then the red and white lights of the carousel stretched and shivered and went out , and he was falling through an ocean of stars , while the mechanical waltz was replaced by a pounding rhythmic roll and crash , as of cymbals or the breakers on the shores of a far ocean .