Harmonium (Stevens)/Of the Manner of Addressing Clouds

by Wallace Stevens

Of the Manner of Addressing Clouds

Gloomy grammarians in golden gowns,Meekly you keep the mortal rendezvous,Eliciting the still sustaining pompsOf speech which are like music so profoundThey seem an exaltation without sound.Funest philosophers and ponderers,Their evocations are the speech of clouds.So speech of your processionals returnsIn the casual evocations of your treadAcross the stale, mysterious seasons. TheseAre the music of meet resignation; theseThe responsive, still sustaining pomps for youTo magnify, if in that drifting wasteYou are to be accompanied by moreThan mute bare splendors of the sun and moon.