The opening lines of Carol Ann Duffy's "Queen Herod" set the scene for the story soon to unfold: a gender-swapped version of the biblical tale of King Herod, who, upon learning of the birth of Jesus Christ, ordered the slaughter of all Bethlehem's male infants out of fear that the newborn "king of the Jews" would one day usurp him.
Duffy's poem, spoken from the imagined perspective of Queen Herod, begins:
Ice in the trees.
Three Queens at the Palace gates,
Because these fragments lack an action verb, they take on a still, almost picturesque quality, like an illustration in a storybook.
The "Three Queens" represent an all-female version of the Bible's Magi: the three wise men from a vague "east" who inform Herod of Jesus's birth. The icy trees and the "furs" worn by the queens indicate that the poem is set during winter, the season in which Jesus Christ, whom the Magi traveled in search of, was born. The poem describes the queens as "accented," highlighting their foreignness.
Behind the regal queens trail coarser companions: "several sweating, panting beasts," later revealed to be camels, head to rest in the palace stables, along with "the guide and boy." (The "guide" refers to the man who led the Queens to the palace, while the "boy" seems to refer to a stablehand.) The poem describes the camels as being "laden," or heavily weighed down, "for a long hard trek," drawing attention once again to the queens' exotic origins as well as the difficulty and importance of their journey. Meanwhile, the image of the travel-worn men and animals entering the stable while the finely-dressed queens enter the palace illustrates the poem's unique gender dynamics; this rendition of the story of King Herod privileges the perspectives and power of women rather than men.
The sounds of these opening lines add to the poem's mysterious tone and bring the scene to life. For example, soft sibilance in lines 1-4 helps to evoke a quiet, wintry world:
Ice in the trees.
Three Queens at the Palace gates,
dressed in furs, accented;
their several sweating, panting beasts
Lines 1-2 also feature assonance of the long /ee/ sound in "trees," "Three," and "Queens," which creates a subtle sing-song rhythm.