Chilling the saucy birds within their nests;
Ruining the rainbow hues of many a garden;
Pricking the insect world with their fine spears,
And disappointing mortals of their wish.

Their somewhat boastful discourse these had ceased,
When came in hosts a crowd around the Pole,
Parting on each side to make way for one,
A stranger, craving audience of their Queen.
What saw those weird and piercing eyes, full turned
To meet the coming throng?--a singular sight,
Which filled them with bright anger and surprise!
Up from the sea, along a silvery path,
A mortal came; her girlish feet the first
That ever pressed the veritable Pole;
And not more strange to her was this wild queen,
And all the fairness of these maids of honor,
Than was her sunny beauty unto them.
The fluttering brightness of her golden hair,
The lustrous darkness of her eyes, the warmth
Of tropic tints upon her brow and cheek,
The dimpled fullness of her form, appeared
In vivid contrast with their fairer charms.
She held an offering of gorgeous flowers--
Those most renowned for fragrance--in her hands,
Which, as she reached the platform, she held forth
With a most winning, most beseeching air.
Amazed at such presumption, on the maid,
Queen OENE's brow darkened in sudden wrath.