Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CLOUDS, by ELIZA COOK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CLOUDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Beautiful clouds! I have watched ye long
Last Line: To its god at the shrine of a passing cloud?
Subject(s): Clouds


Beautiful clouds! I have watched ye long,
Fickle and bright as a fairy throng;
Now ye have gathered golden beams,
Now ye are parting in silver streams,
Now ye are tinged with a roseate brush,
Deepening fast to a crimson flush;
Now, like aerial sprites at play,
Ye are lightly dancing another way;
Metting in many a pearly flake,
Like the cygnet's down on the azure lake;
Now ye gather again, and run
To bask in the blaze of a setting sun;
And anon ye serve as Zephyr's car,
Flitting before the evening star.

Now ye ride in mighty form,
With the arms of a giant, to nurse the storm;
Ye grasp the lightning, and fling it on earth,
All flashing and wild as a maniac's mirth;
Ye cavern the thunder, and bravely it roars,
While the forest groans, and the avalanche pours;
Ye launch the torrent with headlong force,
Till the rivers hiss in their boiling course;
Ye come, and your trophies are scattered around
In the wreck on the waters, the oak on the ground.
Oh! where is the eye that doth not love
The glorious phantoms that glide above?
That hath not looked in the realms of air
With wondering soul and bursting prayer!
Oh! where is the spirit that hath not bowed
To its God at the shrine of a passing cloud?





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