THE CLOUDS, a poem

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.

"The Clouds" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Mine and Thine (1904) and Poems (1916) Volume I.