Cloud-vessels passing on the gale,—

The stately argosies of air,—

And parley with the helmsmen there;

Can probe their dim, mysterious source,

Ask of their cargo and their course,—

Whence come? where bound?—and wait reply,

As, all sails spread, they hasten by.

If, foiled in what I fain would know,

Again I turn my eyes below

And eastward, past the hither mead