Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.
Cloud FantasiesPaul Hamilton Hayne (18301886)
W
Low cloud-racks scud before the level wind;
Beneath them, the bare moorlands, blank and blind,
Stretch, mournful, through pale lengths of glimmering gloom;
Afar, grand mimic of the sea-waves’ boom,
Hollow, yet sweet as if a Titan pined
O’er deathless woes, yon mighty wood, consigned
To autumn’s blight, bemoans its perished bloom;
The dim air creeps with a vague shuddering thrill
Down from those monstrous mists the sea-gale brings,
Half-formless, inland, poisoning earth and sky;
Most from yon black cloud, shaped like vampire wings
Or a lost angel’s visage, deathly-still,
Uplifted toward some dread eternity.