Poem: “To A Cloud” by William Cullen Bryant

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American Literature – American Poetry – William Cullen Bryant – Poems from William Cullen Bryant
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The Murdered Traveller > > >

To A Cloud

Beautiful cloud! with folds so soft and fair,
    Swimming in the pure quiet air!
Thy fleeces bathed in sunlight, while below
    Thy shadow o’er the vale moves slow;
Where, midst their labour, pause the reaper train
    As cool it comes along the grain.
Beautiful cloud! I would I were with thee
    In thy calm way o’er land and sea:
To rest on thy unrolling skirts, and look
    On Earth as on an open book;
On streams that tie her realms with silver bands,
    And the long ways that seem her lands;
And hear her humming cities, and the sound
    Of the great ocean breaking round.
Ay—I would sail upon thy air-borne car
    To blooming regions distant far,
To where the sun of Andalusia shines
    On his own olive-groves and vines,
Or the soft lights of Italy’s bright sky
    In smiles upon her ruins lie.
But I would woo the winds to let us rest
    O’er Greece long fettered and oppressed,
Whose sons at length have heard the call that comes
    From the old battle-fields and tombs,
And risen, and drawn the sword, and on the foe
    Have dealt the swift and desperate blow,
And the Othman power is cloven, and the stroke
    Has touched its chains, and they are broke.
Ay, we would linger till the sunset there
    Should come, to purple all the air,
And thou reflect upon the sacred ground
    The ruddy radiance streaming round.

Bright meteor! for the summer noontide made!
    Thy peerless beauty yet shall fade.
The sun, that fills with light each glistening fold,
    Shall set, and leave thee dark and cold:
The blast shall rend thy skirts, or thou mayst frown
    In the dark heaven when storms come down;
And weep in rain, till man’s inquiring eye
    Miss thee, for ever, from the sky.

< < < Song of the Greek Amazon
The Murdered Traveller > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – William Cullen Bryant – Poems from William Cullen Bryant

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To A Cloud

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