Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part, I ask not proud Philosophy To teach me what thou art.

These lines are the opening of Thomas Campbell’s lyric poem “To the Rainbow,” written in the early Romantic period when poets often treated natural phenomena as occasions for moral feeling rather than scientific explanation. Campbell (1777–1844), a Scottish poet known for polished, public-facing verse, frequently blended elevated diction with accessible sentiment. In “To the Rainbow,” he addresses the rainbow as a “triumphal arch” appearing as storms break, and he frames the poem as a preference for wonder, consolation, and imaginative response over analytical “Philosophy.” The piece reflects a broader early‑nineteenth‑century tension between Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic reverence for nature’s emotional and symbolic power.

Campbell personifies the rainbow as a majestic monument spanning the sky at the very moment turmoil begins to clear. By saying he does not ask “proud Philosophy” to teach him what it is, the speaker rejects reduction of the rainbow to mere mechanism and instead values its felt meaning—beauty, hope, and the promise of calm after disturbance. The phrase “proud Philosophy” suggests that explanation can carry a kind of arrogance, as if naming and analyzing exhausts significance. The lines thus defend a Romantic stance: nature’s phenomena matter not only as objects of knowledge but as sources of awe and moral reassurance, especially when they appear at thresholds—between storm and sunlight, fear and relief.