Original Voices from the Past

“The Clouds”

Ye clouds! ye clouds! that roll in silent splendor from yon mountain wall,
Whose dazzling whiteness makes the blue of heaven more blue,
Ye lift my heart in rapturous flights up toward those wondrous heights,
Where ye go drifting, drifting far above us all.
I love you more because I cannot know the solemn mystery
Whence ye are come and whither ye are moving, children of the wind!
Swift messengers of higher realms, resplendent in your majesty,
Ye seek the western portals of the sky, your glory there to find.
And now, piled high, with silver linings all unfurled, ye move apart
To show against the deep blue openings of the sky, figures and forms,
Fantastic, weird, and beautiful, with shades and shadows
Which no other thought can know
Save His, who to our finite minds hath given this wondrous show.
As on our human hearts these pictures fall, their glory lost,
So as ye move, across the mountains fall your shadows, all their splendor past;
But by their presence, to the mountains grand, an added strength they give,
A beauty, a transforming grace, a power as if to live.
Drift on, sail on, ye dreamy clouds!
Ye beauteous creatures of the sky!
So soon you’re gone, ye winged host,
So soon you have passed by!


     Elizabeth W. Atsatt