Nature
Every element of nature mentioned in "The Cloud" is personified, rendering the inanimate natural world full of life and drama. Each piece of nature has its own personality, from the calm, majestic sun to the lively, energetic lightning. Shelley stresses that the natural world has drama, but not conflict. Its many personalities work together and take turns dominating the earth and sky. Thus in a storm, the cloud becomes the most dominant part of nature, blotting out the sun. Yet during a sunrise, the cloud bears the sun upward into the sky. These natural personalities have little angst when it comes to taking turns wielding power. Instead, they each seem to take joy and satisfaction in natural phenomena in general, with the cloud praising the moon or taking respite during a magnificent sunset. The cloud, like the other personified characters, understands that nature works on a cyclical rather than a linear timeline, making every phase in the cycle necessary.
Power
Throughout the poem, power shifts, with different natural characters dramatically overtaking one another. For instance, during a storm, the cloud takes power over every other character. Yet at night, the moon might tear the cloud in order to shine down on earth. While each of these characters experiences a waxing and waning of power, with dramatic transformations from powerlessness to dominance and back, they never have power struggles (at least not destructive ones). Instead, they each treat their moments of submission as periods of rest and passive appreciation. In this way, Shelley articulates an unusual and even radical vision of peace: the natural world, he points out, is able to live in harmony, without requiring quiet or the muting of creativity. Instead, each character switches between periods of creative productivity, quiet rest, and helpful nurturing, maintaining balance without either chaos or boredom.
Rebirth
When the poem reaches its climax in stanza 5, the cloud exhausts itself by becoming a dramatic storm. But rather than dying away or experiencing a sense of loss following this moment of grandeur, the cloud revels in its momentary recession. After all, the cloud is inextricable from other parts of nature, and is therefore still involved in natural cycles even on cloudless days. Because of nature's interconnectedness, the cloud knows that it will re-form and one day be at the center of another storm. Thus, while it experiences an energized thrill during the storm, it experiences a different, more cerebral and thoughtful joy following the storm. Not only will it be reborn, Shelley emphasizes, but every moment in its cycle of formation and dissolution is valuable and exciting in a unique way.
