Ye clouds, that are the ornament of heaven, Who give to it its gayest shadowings And its most awful glories; ye who roll In the dark tempest, or at dewy evening Bow low in tenderest beauty; — ye are to us A volume full of wisdom.

Percival addresses clouds in an elevated apostrophe, treating them as both aesthetic adornment (“gayest shadowings”) and sublime power (“most awful glories”). The passage moves through contrasting moods—tempest and calm evening—suggesting that nature’s changing forms carry lessons for human observers. Calling the clouds “a volume full of wisdom” frames the sky as a kind of book: meaning is not confined to printed texts but is legible in natural phenomena for those attentive enough to read it. The lines exemplify early American Romantic sensibility, where beauty, terror, and transience in the natural world become sources of moral and philosophical reflection.