Altostratus sunset

On Tuesday, November 8th we had a beautiful sunset of altostratus clouds in the west at 5:30 pm. Seemed like a good time for Coleridge and his romantic turn of phrase. I particularly like "head bent low / And cheek aslant see rivers flow of gold / 'Twixt crimson banks".


By the way, in nubibus is Latin for in the clouds, vague or undefined. These altostratus were well defined.

Fancy In Nubibus, Or The Poet In The Clouds

O! it is pleasant with a heart at ease,
Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies,
To make the shifting clouds be what you please,
Or let the easily persuaded eyes
Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould
Of a friend's fancy; or with head bent low
And cheek aslant see rivers flow of gold
'Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go
From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land!
Or list'ning to the tide, with closed sight,
Be that blind bard, who on the Chian strand
By those deep sounds possessed with inward light
Beheld the Iliad and Odyssey
Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea.


Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Coleridge's sunset

Painted about 6:45 pm on October 24th facing the west. Cool, sky almost free of clouds except this little conjunction of cumuli blown northeast.

Sunset

Upon the mountain's edge with light touch resting,
There a brief while the globe of splendour sits
And seems a creature of the earth; but soon
More changeful than the Moon,
To wane fantastic his great orb submits,
Or cone or mow of fire: till sinking slowly
Even to a star at length he lessens wholly.

Abrupt, as Spirits vanish, he is sunk!
A soul-like breeze possesses all the wood.
The boughs, the sprays have stood
As motionless as stands the ancient trunk!
But every leaf through all the forest flutters,
And deep the cavern of the fountain mutters.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1805.