I belong to the fag-end of Victorian liberalism, and can look back to an age whose challenges were moderate in their tone, and the... cloud on whose horizon was no bigger than a man's hand.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Out of the bosom of the Air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,... Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest-fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow Descends the snow.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself,... Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and... Are melted into air, into thin air. And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself-- Yea, all which it inherit--shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When the lamp is shattered, The light in the dust lies dead;... When the cloud is scattered, The rainbow's glory is shed; When the lute is broken, Sweet tones are remembered not; When the lips have spoken, Loved accents are soon forgot.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At length I entered within the skirts of the cloud which seemed forever drifting over the summit, and yet would never be gone.... ...It reminded me of the creations of the old epic and dramatic poets, of Atlas, Vulcan, the Cyclops, and Prometheus. Such was Caucasus and the rock where Prometheus was bound. Ãâ schylus had no doubt visited such scenery as this. It was vast, Titanic, and such as man never inhabits. Some part of the beholder, even some vital part, seems to escape through the loose grating of his ribs as he ascends. He is more lone than you can imagine. There is less of substantial thought and fair understanding in him than in the plains where men inhabit. His reason is dispersed and shadowy, more thin and subtle, like the air. Vast, Titanic, inhuman Nature has got him at disadvantage, caught him alone, and pilfers him of some of his divine faculty. She does not smile on him as in the plains. She seems to say sternly, Why came ye here before your time? This ground is not prepared for you. Is it not enough that I smile in the valleys?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Just as much for us that sobbing dirge of Nature, Just as much whence we come that blare of the cloud-trumpets,... We, capricious, brought hither we know not whence, spread out before you, You up there walking or sitting, Whoever you are, we too lie in drifts at your feet.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You say, "It is dark." And in truth, I did place a cloud before your sun. But do you not see how the edges of the cloud are alread...y glowing and turning light.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »