s, in every field
Flowers crowded thick; and trees, not tall nor rude,
With slender stems upholding feathery shade,
Nodded their heads and hung their pliant limbs
In natural bowers, sweet with delicious gloom.

Queen OENE sent her luminous glance afar:
Fine rays of tintless light played round her head,
Crowning her beauty with mysterious glory.
She gazed away, beyond the tranquil sea,
To distant mountains of unchanging snow,
And still beyond, to where full many a tower
And fortress reared their walls of gleaming ice
On the dim verges of her vast domains.

Scarcely had she in silence throned herself,
Ere from the trees, or flower-coves of the shore,
Or gliding in from idling on the sea,
Her maids of honor came, a virgin train,
Like a bright constellation clustering round
The central star, most glorious of them all.
One, in a crimson blossom, torn away
From its far moorings, nestled at her ease,
Was seen slowly to skim the silver lake;
While the huge flower seemed of itself propelled,
Save that, by chance, a flushed and saucy face,
Peeped from the waves, showing a little imp
Who tugged at its stout stem with willful toil.
KOLONA's limbs and bosom roseate glowed
As the slant moonlight through the crimson flower
Bathed her with blushes; but, when on the strand
She lightly sprang, flinging her tresses back,
A southern maiden would have deemed her pale.
Too rich for pallor was the polished glow
Of her lithe figure; while, in either cheek,
The red veins glimmered; dark blue were her eyes;
Her tresses, like deep shadows, made more fair
The light which they enhanced, glancing within.

The first to touch the white feet of the Queen
And place herself at her right hand, was she.
Others came soon; all bright, all beautiful,
With deep blue eyes, and sweet mouths set in smiles.
Long chains of jewels rare were, round their necks,
Twined many times; these, flickering, rose and fell
With the soft breath their full, graced bosoms drew.
From waist to knee of each a tunic dropped
In many folds, woven in changing hues
Of birds' gay plumage, and fringed deep with gems,
Which they with artless and unenvying pride,
Would fain have made, each, most magnificent.

They gathered round their Queen, as midnight neared.
Suddenly, with the hour