Clouds don’t simply exist by themselves. They are not only important as weather features, but have had a strong influence on poetry. They are not simply meteorological phenomena, but also have metaphorical presence in our psyches.
When I see clouds, I’m reminded of this poem:
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again. By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Pictures of Earth from space are beautiful. Those pictures never fail to remind me that our planet is beautiful and complex.
When you see those photos, where do your eyes focus the most?
I notice the land mass, certainly, however, my eye rivets to the clouds and oceans.
When you think of the term “weather,” what do you think of? Where do you look to determine what the atmospheric conditions are, when you think of the term?
I look at the sky. In fact, I look at the sky often to determine what kind of weather is happening when I look out the window.
Is the sky blue or are there clouds and what kind of clouds are those? Looking at the sky to determine conditions by assessing clouds is something we all do. It’s the most basic way of appraising immediate weather conditions.
What is a cloud? I’m sure our questioning about clouds and our romance with them starts early in our lives.
Clouds rolled in and wept tears on the field. Without wine, purple flowers cannot grow. The greenery provides pleasant scenery for me today. For whose delight will my remains nurture grass tomorrow? Omar Khayyam, Trans. Juan Cole.
Cloud — an explanation:
It is an atmospheric phenomenon, an aerosol like suspension composed of large numbers of minute particles of water and/or ice. The appearance of clouds is determined by the size and number of particles it has and the lighting around it:
The appearance of a cloud is determined by the nature, sizes, number and distribution in space of its constituent particles; it also depends on the intensity and colour[sic] of the light received by the cloud and on the relative positions of observer and source of light (luminary) with respect to the cloud." Appearance is best described in terms of the dimensions, shape, structure, texture, luminance and colour[sic] of the cloud. These factors will be considered for each of the characteristic cloud forms [pg9].
We see clouds because of its luminance. That is a term used to describe:
[…] light reflected, scattered and transmitted by its constituent particles. This light comes, for the most part, direct from the luminary or from the sky; it may also come from the surface of the earth, being particularly strong when sunlight or moonlight is reflected by ice- or snow-fields.. The luminance of a cloud may be modified by intervening haze. [pg9].
So fine was the morning except for a streak of wind here and there that the sea and sky looked all one fabric, as if sails were stuck high up in the sky, or the clouds had dropped down into the sea. To the Lighthouse — Virginia Wolf.
We have names for clouds to designate their function in weather. Who named them? His name
was Luke Howard, a British chemist and amateur meteorologist. He contributed the nomenclature for clouds. He named three basic clouds and then combined them to name others.
Clouds suit my mood just fine. Champion, Marie Lu.
The basic three were:
Cirrus – curly, ran parallel to each other and had fibrous extensions.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;[...]. By William Wordsworth.
Cumulus – looks like a heap, a pile-up. Has a horizontal base from which it appears to rise and forms cone like shapes. Combination of convex and cone shapes.
Enter a cloud. The cloud’s
Changing shape is crossing
Slowly only an inch
Above the line of the sea. By W.S. Graham
Stratus – Spread out. A horizontal sheet-like spread which appears to increase from below.
These three form the foundation to describe clouds. They were then combined to form an expanding lexicon of meteorology, to describe clouds. Here’s an example of a few:
Cirrocumulus – thin
clouds composed of super-cooled water droplets which convert to ice crystals. These form iridescence around sun or moon.
These are the clouds about the fallen sun,
The majesty that shuts his burning eye.” By W.B. Yeates
The Cirro-stratus, which are sheet-like, horizontal, undulating and in separate groups.
The clouds have gathered and gathered, and the rain
falls and falls,
The eight ply of the heavens are all folded one
darkness,
And the wide flat road stretches out. By To-em-mei.
The Cumulo-stratus is a blending of both types, often appearing in Heaps. Like fluffy heaps of wool.
The sun enjoys short sentences but clouds prefer a shifting Jamesian syntax. Peter Porter.
Cumulo-cirro-stratus, AKA – nimbus, later changed to Nimbostrastus.
While Howard was an initiator of cloud names and function, the expansion of nomenclature and study of clouds continued.
While TIROS-1 was the first weather satellite to send back images of cloud systems for weather purposes, the need for an organization to study cloud movements occurred in 1873 with the establishment International Meteorological Org.
They made the first cloud atlas. They even used photography in 1879, to study clouds and classify them. This group later became the World Meterological Org.
A look at how the clouds work on the various strata levels of the atmosphere. Also, the clouds are named herein.
In our time, the modern cloud atlas orders and categorizes clouds by their formation and their placement in high, middle and low atmospheric strata, for easier satellite identification and analysis.
Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky. Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds.
Clouds and fascination with them are not the just preserve of meteorologist and poets. Artists like to study them as well.
Which cloud is your favorite?
Please, would you share a poem about clouds with us in comments?