University of Virginia Library

CLOUDS! LOVELY CLOUDS.

Clouds! lovely Clouds! How move ye brightly on,
Like fiery dust whirled round the Chariot Throne
Of yon victorious, radiant Lord of Light—
Beaming in boundless glory on the sight—
Yon bright, auspicious, beatific sun—
Whose daily course is now full nearly run.
Clouds! lovely Clouds! how gloriously ye move
In rich and rapid restlessness above!—
Nay, all the Firmaments around ye, make
Appear in glowing motion, when ye wake
Unto the touch of some triumphant Wind,
And speed, as ye would leave e'en space behind!
It seems while sweep ye thus,—ye life-like things,
As Heaven were moving on all gorgeous wings,
From Boundlessness to Boundlessness along—
Rolling, like mighty Seas, when Storms are strong—
As all the everlasting Heavens above,
Rush'd as ye rush, and moved e'en as ye move!—
(Ye hurrying, restless, unreturning things!)—
While all their worlds were speeding upon wings.
Clouds, Clouds, I love ye—and I love to dream,
Borne on glad Fancy's smoothly flowing stream.
That ye in twenty thousand lovely forms
Precede—survive the stern and shadowy storms.—
Chariots, and mighty barks, and golden towers,
And palmy groves, and fair Elysian bowers—
And trophied piles of Pride, and mighty pyres—
And pyramids, and monuments, and spires—
Bright oriflammes and canopies of state,
And blazing scrolls of deeply written fate,
And gates of glory—and imperial tombs—
Crowned sheaves of plenty and wide-waving plumes—
And bannered armies—and thick-jewell'd thrones,
And gorgeous shrines emblazed with precious stones,
And sumptuous shells of giant size, ye seem,
And many another thing to my swift dream.
Oh! lovely Clouds, I call ye regal things
In your oncomings and evanishings.
The glorious Sun his own dread beauty views
On your fair faces—blazoned with his hues—
Ye are his stars!—for those he may not see
Which his own light doth banish instantly—
But ye reflect, in rosy beauty bright,
The glories of that pure effulgent light!—
Clouds, lovely Clouds—ye free and fearless things—
Would of my burthened Soul ye were the Wings!