Enamels and Cameos/The Cloud

by Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier

Lightly in the azure air
     Soars a cloud, emerging free
Like a virgin from the fair
     Blue sea;

Or an Aphrodite sweet,
     Floating upright and empearled
In the shell, about its feet
     Foam-curled.

Undulating overhead,
     How its changing body glows!
On its shoulder dawn hath spread
     A rose.

Marble, snow, blend amorously
     In that form by sunlight kissed —
Slumbering Antiope
     Of mist!

Sailing unto distant goal,
     Over Alps and Apennines,
Sister of the woman-soul,
     It shines;

Till my heart flies forth at last
     On the wings of passion warm,
And I yearn to gather fast
     Its form.

Reason saith : “Mere vapour thing!
     Bursting bubble! Yet, we deem,
Holds this wind-distorted ring
     Our dream.”

Faith declareth: “Beauty seen,
     Like a cloud, is but a thought,
Or a breath, that, having been,
     Is naught.

“Have thy vision. Build it proud.
     Let thy soul be full thereof.
Love a woman — love a cloud —
     But love!”