THE CLOUDS THAT ARE SO LIGHT

By Edward Thomas

THE clouds that are so light,

Beautiful, swift and bright,

Cast shadows on field and park

Of the earth that is so dark,

And even so now, light one!

Beautiful, swift and bright one!

You let fall on a heart that was dark,

Unillumined, a deeper mark.

But clouds would have, without earth

To shadow, far less worth:

Away from your shadow on me

Your beauty less would be,

And if it still be treasured

An age hence, it shall be measured

By this small dark spot

Without which it were not.