We caught the tread of dancing feet,
    We loitered down the moonlit street,
    And stopped beneath the harlot's hous
    Inside, above the din and fray,
    We heard the loud musicians play
    The 'Treues Liebes Herz' of Straus
    Like strange mechanical grotesques,
    Making fantastic arabesques,
    The shadows raced across the blin
    We watched the ghostly dancers spin
    To sound of horn and violin,
    Like black leaves wheeling in the win
    Like wire-pulled automatons,
    Slim silhouetted skeletons
    Went sidling through the slow quadrille,