Winter-palace of ice: An allusion, apparently, to the
James Russell Lowell
ice-palace built by the Empress of Russia, Catherine II, "most
magnificent and mighty freak. The wonder of the North," Cowper called
it. Compare Lowell's description of the frost work with Cowper's
similar description in _The Task_, in the beginning of Book V.
205-210. 'Twas as if every image, etc.: Note the exquisite fancy in
these lines. The elves have preserved in the ice the pictures of
summer foliage and clouds that were mirrored in the water as models
for another summer.