Emily Dickinson

A Cloud withdrew from the Sky

Summary


"A Cloud withdrew from the Sky" is a short poem in which a speaker watches a glorious cloud and its attendants vanish for good. Regret hangs over every line: had the speaker looked longer and stored that glow in memory, it might still offer comfort. Instead, a resolve forms to never again pass an angel with a mere glance and a bow. In just twelve lines, wonder turns into a quiet vow.

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A Cloud withdrew from the Sky
Superior Glory be
But that Cloud and its Auxiliaries
Are forever lost to me

Had I but further scanned
Had I secured the Glow
In an Hermetic Memory
It had availed me now.

Never to pass the Angel
With a glance and a Bow
Till I am firm in Heaven
Is my intention now.

A woman on a hillside watches a glowing golden cloud drift away, illustrating Emily Dickinson's "A Cloud withdrew from the Sky".
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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, whose compact, dash-filled verses were largely discovered after her death. This poem shows her gift for turning a single image from the sky into a meditation on attention, memory and faith.