CLOUD-FANTASIES .

Wild , rapid, dark, like dreams of threatening doom,
Low cloud-racks scud before the level wind;
Beneath them, the bared 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
O'er a lost angel's visage, deathly-still,
Uplifted toward some dread eternity.