Cloud Cast

A shadow down the valley blows,

A shadow-did I feel it pass? It goes

Below the ground, and through the grass it flows

Into a sweep upon the hill,

And reaches like a beaching sea, until

Long fingers comb it through a tree, and still

It measure-wavers on, and slides

On rounded rocks laid bare; it strides

Over a wall and started hare; it rides

With moving pause over the crest,

And blades itself to snuggle there-at rest ?-

It tongues, to make one hill a pair, and lest

I do not see it wave goodbye,

It turns and ribbon-threads the plain, and I

Fancy that still I see it gain the sky.