Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume I/The Clouds
For other versions of this work, see The Clouds (Coates).
THE CLOUDS
THE clouds give back to earth again
The moisture they absorb;
An atom floating in the sun
Is lasting as an orb.
We fear lest ill should fly itself,
And wrong at last prevail:
Lest good should lack its just reward
And light untimely fail:
We falter, and distrust the fate
We may not understand,
Interrogate the oracle,
When God is close at hand.
And still the clouds go drifting by,
Or fall in fruitful rain;
High over us the stars, undimmed,
Benignant shine again;
And from that temple, viewless, vast,
Where failure is unknown,
The Father of existences
Keeps watch above his own.