Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CLOUD, by JOHN BANISTER TABB Poet's Biography First Line: Far on the brink of day Last Line: "the veil of nothingness!" Alternate Author Name(s): Father Tabb Subject(s): Clouds | ||||||||
FAR on the brink of day Thou standest as the herald of the dawn, Where fades the night's last flickering spark away Ere the first dewdrop's gone. Above the eternal snows By winter scattered on the mountain height To shroud the centuries, thy visage glows With a prophetic light. Calm is thine awful brow; As when thy presence shrined Divinity Between the flaming Cherubim, so now Its shadow clings to thee. Yet as an Angel mild Thou, in the torrid noon, with sheltering wing Dost o'er the earth, as to a weary child, A balm celestial bring. And when the evening dies, Still to thy fringed vesture cleaves the light -- The last sad glimmer of her tearful eyes On the dark verge of night. So, soon thy glories wane! Thou too must mourn the rose of morning shed: Cold creeps the fatal shadow o'er thy train, And settles on thy head. And while the wistful eye Yearns for the charm that wooed its ravished gaze, The sympathy of Nature wakes a sigh, And thus its thought betrays: "Thou, like the Cloud, my soul, Dost in thyself of beauty nought possess; Devoid the light of Heaven, a vapor foul, The veil of nothingness!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRESENCES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE CLOUDHERD'S SONG by ROBERT KELLY THE IMPRESSMENT by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE CLOUDS ABOVE THE OCEAN by STEPHEN DOBYNS THE SACHEM OF THE CLOUDS (A THANKSGIVING LEGEND) by ROBERT FROST A PORTRAIT OF MY ROOF by JAMES GALVIN ABOVE AND WITHIN by DAVID IGNATOW ANONYMOUS by JOHN BANISTER TABB |
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