Storm-cloud

The fleet was on mid ocean; land no more / was visible, naught else above, before / but sky and sea, when overhead did loom / a storm-cloud, black as heaven itself, that bore / dark night and wintry tempest in its womb, / and all the waves grew rough and shuddered with the gloom.

The flash of lightning was almost instantly followed by a burst of thunder, for the storm-cloud was very near the castle.

’TIS midnight now—athwart the murky air, / Dank lurid meteors shoot a livid gleam; / From the dark storm-clouds flashes a fearful glare, / It shews the bending oak, the roaring stream.

O Isla’s maid, yon sea-bird mark, / Her white wing gleams through mist and spray, / Against the storm-cloud, lowering dark, / As to the rock she wheels away;— / Where clouds are dark and billows rave, / Why to the shelter should she come / Of cliff exposed to wind and wave?— / O maid of Isla, ’tis her home.

The dreariest towns I ever beheld—the tops of the islands in gloomy storm-clouds; […]