The Arctic Queen | Page 2

to the southern sky, a fluttering crowd.
A
warrior, yellow garbed, with fiery spear,
Bestrode a frantic steed, and
looked not back
Till he alighted on a distant hill.
With scintillant
flames some perched on towers remote
Or bore green banners o'er the
mirroring sea,
Or flitted through dim valleys, bright and fast,

Casting their flickering shadows down the deep
And awful solitudes
of Arctic lands.
Such of her people as had aught to ask
Of favor or redress, from air
and earth,
Came now, bringing petitions, councils, gifts.
Some slid
on twinkling star-beams through the air,
Some sailed in shallops over
the light waves,
And all who came had presents for their Queen,--

Rare tints which they had caught just as the Moon
Peered o'er the
shoulder of the mighty Thug.--
Those dwelling in the caverns of the
sea
Brought up the gayest jewels they could find,
And pearls from
underneath their low-based bergs
Deep in the green waves, that, with
thunderous sound,
Did lull the giants of the North to sleep.
There came, as time rolled by, from the far verge

Of her vast realm,
the rugged guardian ghouls,
Stationed in fortresses and waging war

On all encroachers from the hated South.
These had wild forms and

gaunt; their dress was rude--
Skins of the white bear fastened to their
loins.
They bore long, glistening spears, and deadly clubs

Wrenched from the spines of monsters of the sea.
Their gifts were
rude as they, and yet their Queen
Unbent the radiant quiet of her brow,

Gazing with favor on these proofs of valor.
Tales of achievements
dread, of battles, deaths,
Had they to speak, while, with pleased ear
intent,
Their sovereign listened.
One warrior ghoul
With crispy locks and frosty eyes, and breath

Chiller than death's,--naked, as scorning e'en
To wear the trophies of
his fierce renown--
Before the Presence stood, and told in haste,--

As half impatient of the wish to boast,
Yet proud to serve so
well--how he was called
WOLE, guardian of old Thug;--how from
the South
Came, ploughing slowly through the unwilling sea,
A
ship, crowded with mortals from that land;
How, boldly, in defiance
of commands
Sent out by skirmishing Frosts, they still drew near,

Passing the outer line of her domains;
Daring to come, with their
invading eyes,
Where never mortals else had looked and lived.
He
told,--and here he glanced, upon his friends,
Eyes of bright
scorn--how the imperious ship
Passed safely Tug and Dor, though all
the guards
Shot barbs of ice, and filled the air with fine,
Invisible
needles, piercing their pained flesh,
And tore their stiffening sails
with sharp-teethed winds; How, still, the ship pressed on where He kept
watch,
Ready to do new service for his Queen:
How, as it closer
came, he fixed his eyes
Relentlessly upon it, till nor hand,
Nor foot,
nor eyelid of the fated crew
Had power to stir, nor even the sails to
flap,
While banded winds which he sent forth, still drove
The
doomed ones onward to the eager shore,
Where every soul had
perished, one by one.
"Thou hast done well, old WOLE," Queen OENE said.
Stepping a pace in front of her companions,

With bashful cheek, but
with a kindling eye--
"'Tis not for one like me to have a thought
In

thy rare presence, Queen," KOLONA said,--
"Yet I would dare to tell
thee what I saw
Only a moon ago, when a wild freak
Possessed me
to go voyaging alone,
Across the sea, to find what curious things

The other shore might hold. My lily bark,
Being too frail for such a
venturous cruise
I borrowed GONDOR's boat of nautilus' shells,

Put up my lua-leaf sail and swiftly sped
Across the ocean, till this
level isle
Grew smaller than a star. The air grew cold:--
I almost
shivered in my bird's-down mantle;
But when I neared the opposing
shore, the sight
Of all its snowy scenery, repaid me.
Coasting along
at leisure, on a cliff
Which overhung the sea, I saw appear
A being,
whom I knew at once as Man.--
One of that mortal race which we
have kept
Forever, since our chronicles began,
With war assiduous,
from our inner realms,
Still undefiled by their invading feet.
The
choking hurry of my noisy heart
Told me the truth. At first I would
have fled,
But, being unperceived by him, I lingered,--
Inquisitive
and wilful that I am.
Thenceforth, sweet Queen, I never can forget

The face of this one man which I have seen.
Triumph was on his
brow, and yet not that
So much as doubt and earnest questioning.

Something arose into his eyes and shone
Which must have been his
Soul; it searched the deep,
The earth, the sky, with bright and
troubled gaze;
And then, glanced forward with so still a look,
It
seemed that it, perforce, would vanish space,
And bring our secret
world within its ken;
Yet, with no cruelty or wantonness,
Such as
we hear gleamed from the cunning eyes
Of those fierce hordes who,
centuries ago,
Came in their boats and strove to conquer us.

Knowledge was what it craved, with truth it burned;

A majesty we
cannot name, expressed
Its power within his features. Then I felt

That, could I bring him to thy gracious feet
He would reveal to us that
mystery
The dream of which so oft hath troubled us,
Breaking upon
us, like the light