The poem begins with the speaker describing a parlor, where her mother has laid out the body of somebody named Arthur. The walls are decorated with portraits of various members of the royal family, while on the table is a taxidermied loon. The loon was shot by the speaker's uncle Arthur—the father of the child who has died. Since being shot, he is silent, watching the white marble table as if it is a frozen lake. He has a white, cold breast and lovely red glass eyes.
The speaker's mother encourages her to say farewell to her little cousin Arthur, and she is lifted up to lay a flower in his hand. His coffin looks like a frosted cake, and the loon looks over at it from his lake-like table. Arthur looks like a doll that hasn't been painted, or a leaf that Jack Frost has yet to finish painting red. Only his hair is colorful, and the rest of him is white.
The royal couples in the photographs look warm, wrapped in their luxurious fur outfits. They are, the speaker imagines, asking Arthur to join them as a page, but the speaker wonders how he can do so, with the flower in his hands, his eyes closed, and the roads around the house covered in snow.
