ICE PALACE.


O palace of marvellous beauty and light,
Like a shrine of enchantment thou art to the sight,
As sparkling with pride 'neath the sun's fond caress,
Thou blushest with love's conscious joyful excess.

Ten thousand bright jewels, from Neptune's realm won,
Compose thy weird structure, where daily the sun
And nightly the Moon in turn sparklingly play
Through each lunar ripple and bright solar ray.

Like some ancient temple upreared to the sun,
As chaste as a bride--and as pure as a nun,
Result of stern winter's imperious commands,
Fitting tribute to it in these northern lands.

Thy empire, O ice king, is stern and severe,
But it has rare pleasures which all hold most dear.
We, our winter pastimes to greet thee convoke,
And the goddess of health with thee daily invoke.

In gleeful assemblage we now celebrate
Thy reign, through tobogganing, snow-shoes, and skate,