[222] Compare A Poet’s Epitaph (vol. ii. p. 75).—Ed.
“THE MOST ALLURING CLOUDS THAT MOUNT THE SKY”
Published 1842
[Hundreds of times have I seen, hanging about and above the vale of Rydal, clouds that might have given birth to this sonnet, which was thrown off on the impulse of the moment one evening when I was returning from the favourite walk of ours, along the Rotha, under Loughrigg.—I.F.]
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.
The most alluring clouds that mount the sky
Owe to a troubled element their forms,
Their hues to sunset. If with raptured eye
We watch their splendour, shall we covet storms,
And wish the Lord of day his slow decline 5