THE VOICE OF THE RAIN

Theme

The Voice of the Rain is a poem that celebrates rain and its natural-cycle for the benefit of earth and the life it
supports. The poem is in the form of a conversation between the poet and the ‘rain’.The whole narrative of the Rain
is about how it leaves the ground, fulfills its duties in the atmosphere, and comes back to the ground out of love in
order to beautify the world and spread life.It says that it purifies earth and also gives life to it. It returns back to earth
exactly like a song, which finally return to its singer in the form of appreciation after it is heard everywhere round
the globe.

The last couple of lines in particular are about the idea-"Love draws people back to their roots."

Explanation

The poem begins with the poet asking for the identity of the soft-falling rain shower. Much to the surprise of the
poet, the rain replies to his question. And, the poet translates this ‘voice’ of the rain for his readers.The rain
identifies itself as the ‘Poem of Earth’. It says that it rises from the land and the deep sea, in the form of the
intangible water vapours, and goes up to the immeasurable sky. It then takes the form of clouds with various shapes.
Although it changes in its form and shape, its core existence remains the same.

It descends or falls on the surface of the earth to eliminate droughts, wash away the tiny particles and settle down the
dust-layers. It reinvigorates the dry lands and gives life to the seeds that, otherwise, would have remained dormant
and unborn. Thus, the rain drops rise in the form of vapours only to come back to its origin in the form of rain.
During this cycle, it purifies and beautifies (by nourishing the unborn seeds) the planet.

The last two lines of the poem are the poet’s reflection upon the answer given by the rain. The poet observes that the
life of rain is similar to that of a song. A song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after
fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet with all due love. Similarly, the rain rises
from the land and oceans, wanders, fulfills its purpose of nourishing life and purifying the planet, and then returns to
its birth-place.

Connotations & Literary Devices:

Personification is used on rain to turn it into a being that talks. For instance, the poem states that the Rain gave the
narrator an answer. The poem also states that the Rain rises and descends. The purpose of using personification is to
narrate the story through the Rain and to see life from the Rain's point of view

There is also a metaphor comparing rain to song, which could imply a person. The metaphor compares how the Rain
leaves the ground to come back to the ground, giving back to it, much like a song or person leaves its home, only to
come back after fulfilling its journey.

There are interesting connotations to how Whitman describes the Rain. He calls it a "soft-falling shower", implying
the gentle and calm aspect of rain. And forever………..,This line refers to the fact that both rain and poets 'give
back' to all around them. It is the purpose of both nature and poets to purify and beautify the world- in a figurative
and literal way. Without the nourishment of the rain and the words of a poet the world would not be as colorful a
place.

Shifts:

There is a shift between lines 2 and 3, where the point of view changes from the poet to the Rain. The purpose of
this shift is to show what the poet asks the Rain, and what the Rain subsequently answers him with.
IMPORTANT LINES:

‘Which strange to tell…’

Often, poets took on the role of the mediator between nature and humanity. The poet admits it was strange that he
could understand the rain and now takes up the task of translating the answer for the readers.

‘I am the poem of the earth’

There is an immediate metaphoric comparison between the rain and poetry. However, this significance only comes
to light in the poet’s reflection at the end of the poem.

‘Eternal I rise…’

The sense of permanence is extremely strong throughout the poem. The cyclic lifestyle is endless and shall continue
as long as the connection between the rain and earth persists. The words ‘eternal’, ‘impalpable’, ‘bottomless’ show
that though we record the overt reality, the true scope of nature remains tantalizingly beyond our rational
comprehension.

‘Altogether changed, and yet the same’

The rain changes its appearance from intangible vapours to abstract clouds, yet, at its core, it remains the rain. This
is the universal law that energy is never destroyed, only transferred from one form to another. Hence, ironically, in
change, lies eternity.

‘I give back life to my own origin’

The rain falls to bring life to the unborn seeds hidden in the earth, its own birth-place.

‘(For song… duly with love returns)’

These lines have been placed in parenthesis because they are not a part of the conversation between the poet and the
rain, rather its aftermath where the poet reflects on the conversation. He realizes that the rain’s life is similar to that
of any song. A song’s birth place is the poet’s heart. Once complete, it is passed on (wanders) from one person to
another. It may change (reck’d) or remain the same (unreck’d) as it travels, but one day, it returns to the poet with all
due love of the listeners.

Style of the poem

Walt Whitman broke several conventions of poetry when writing this poem. There is no rhyme scheme nor do the
lines stay of the same length. Although each phrase is just enough to be read in one breath, we find ourselves
breathless as the line runs on and eventually becomes a part of the whole. This kind of poetry was known as prosaic
poetry, that is, poetry that is written like prose

OR

Introduction

The poem “The Voice of the Rain” written by Walt Whitman is about the poet’s imaginary conversation with rain
droplets. In the end, he says that his poetry is like the rain droplets as both of them play a crucial role in the world.
The poem is an open verse without any rhyme scheme. It lacks a specific form, metre and consists of single stanza
having 9 lines.

Poem Summary

The poet is in an imaginary conversation with the rain which he calls the soft-falling shower. He asks the rain, “And
who art thou?” i.e. “who are you“. The poet uses “And” at the beginning which, I think, depict that the poet
encounters it suddenly.

As he is talking to the rain in imaginations, he considers this conversation strange to tell yet he translates for the
readers to understand what the rain answered. The rain tells the poet in her “voice” that she is the Poem of Earth. In
a way, the sound of raindrops falling on the ground is “voice of rain” according to the poet which is musical.

The rain further tells the poet that it keep rising forever in the form of vapours which are impalpable i.e.
untouchable out of the land and the bottomless sea to the heaven i.e. sky.

There, the vapours form clouds. Their form is changed yet their basic structure remains the same. Now the rain
comes down to lave i.e. wash away the drouths i.e. droughts, atomies i.e dust particles and dust-layers of the whole
world.

The rain says that if it did not have done so, the trees would have been just the seeds, unborn and undeveloped. It
keeps giving life to its own origin i.e. it keeps doing the same process to make the earth pure and beautiful.

Poetry & Rain

In the final lines, the poet compares the rain with his poetry. According to him, the song i.e. poem rises from its
birth-place i.e. the heart of the poet and goes from person to person who like it, criticise it and love it. Ultimately
with it, comes love for the poet.

Hence the poet, in the poem, tries to show the significance of his poetry. As rain is to the earth, poetry is to man

Question and Answers

Q.1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?
Ans. The poem begins in a conversational tone. The two voices in the poem are the voice of the poet and the voice
of the rain. The lines that indicate the voice of the poet and the rain are, “And who art thou? Said I to the soft-falling
shower,” and the lines that indicate the voice of the rain are, “I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain”.
Q.2. What does the phrase "strange to tell" mean?
Ans. The phrase “strange to tell” means that it is quite strange for the poet to believe and express in words that the
soft-falling rain replied to his question. At the beginning of the poem, the poet inquires the rain about its identity, to
which the rain replies that it is the 'Poem of Earth'
Q.3. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain
the similarity between the two.
Ans. The lines, “I am the Poem of Earth”, said by the voice of the rain, reflects a connection
between rain and poet. This connection becomes more easily visible in the final two lines, “(For song, issuing from
its birth-place, after fulfillment, wandering Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns)”. In these lines, the poet
draws similarities between rain and music observing that the life-cycle of rain and song are alike. The song issues
from the heart of the poet and travels to reach others. It wanders and, whether heard and enjoyed or not, eventually
returns to its creator with all due love. Similarly, rain originates from the earth, and after fulfilling its role of
spreading beauty and purity, returns to its origin. Both are perpetual in nature. Moreover, the sound of the soft-
falling rain is in itself a kind of music.
Q.4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it with what
you have learnt in science.
Ans. In the poem, the water rises from the 'land and the bottomless sea' to reach the sky. There, it transforms itself
into vague formation of clouds, different in their structure than the water from which they originate. After
wandering, these clouds descend to the earth in the form of rain to provide relief to the drought-ridden areas and
infuse life into the unborn and latent seeds. The rain renders the earth with beauty and purity. In science, we learn
the cyclical process of rain in terms like evaporation, condensation,
precipitation, flowing rivers, ground water and ocean water etc, while in the poem the same process becomes
interesting and unusual. The rain speaks itself to describe its course.
Q.5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
Ans.The lines in the bracket indicate the reflections, observations and thoughts of the poet. He makes observations
about the life-course of a song and draws similarities between the life-cycle of a song and rain.

Q1:The poem begins in a conversational tone. Who are the two participants? What is the advantage of this
method?
Ans The two participants are the poet and the rain. The poet makes the rain relate its own story. This direct
presentation makes the narration more authentic, interesting and captivating.

Q2:“Behind the apparent simplicity, the poem hides a deep meaning.” What exactly does the poem convey to
the reader?
Ans The poem is not merely a description of life-cycle of rain. It has deeper meaning. Rain is a poem or thing of
beauty of Earth and so is song or music. The comparison between rain and music .and their function: making the
Earth pure and beautiful conveys the eternal role of natural phenomenon and art in real life.

Q3:How does the rain justify its claim: “I am the Poem of Earth’”?
Ans The rain narrates the journey of its life—from birth to return to origin in mythical terms. The facts are scientific
but the phrases that convey them are metaphoric and literary. The whole journey has a beauty and charm associated
with a poem

THE LABURNUM TOP

The poem “The Laburnum Top” by Ted Hughes describes the mutual relation between a Laburnum Tree and a
goldfinch. Both of them are yellow in colour (the tree is yellow because of its flowers) and quite beautiful in
appearance.

The Laburnum Tree is beautiful, large but quite silent and getting naked because of winter. However, the bird,
Goldfinch appears from the sky and soon the whole tree is surrounded by the sweet chirps of the bird and her young
ones. It was previously dead and now it seems to be alive and shaking until the bird vanishes away again. Dead
silence prevails.

The poem has been divided into three stanzas. There is not set rhyme scheme. The first stanza describes the tree
before the bird reaches it. The second stanza describes the coming of the bird and the final stanza tells the condition
of the tree when the bird goes away.

The Laburnum Top Line by Line Explanation

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Stanza 1
In the first stanza, the poet says that he saw a Laburnum Tree (with its yellow flowers). In his words, “The
Laburnum top is silent“. The tree is still and looks dead-like in the day time of September. Even the sunlight is also
yellow. As it is the time of autumn, the leaves of the tree have turned yellow and its seeds have fallen off it.

In this stanza, the poet uses the image “yellow” colour repeatedly. First the tree’s flowers are yellow, then its leaves
have also turned yellow and the sunlight is also yellow.

The yellow color symbolises beauty (because of flowers, which, though have fallen off in the form of seeds), death
(because of yellow leaves) as well as silence (day time without rain or wind). In the whole stanza, the poet is trying
to describe the miserable condition of the Laburnum Tree which is silent, dying and without seeds (useless).

Stanza 2

The death-like scene however changes as soon as the goldfinch comes with a twitching chirrup. Goldfinch is a
bright yellow coloured bird. Twitching chirrup means “short chirping sounds”.

The bird is quite precautious while sitting at a branch end of the tree and has sudden quick movements. Perhaps it is
looking out for any danger that might be there.

It then goes into the thick bark of the Laburnum Tree smoothly but abruptly with alertness. As soon as she enters the
tree (her nest is inside the Laburnum Tree), a machine starts up of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings.

The image of machine here refers to the young ones of the bird. A machine makes a lot of noise when it starts.
Similarly, when the young birds see their mother they start chirping like a machine, flattering their wings fastly in
joy as their mother has come with food. They were hungry as well as sad being far from their mother.

Now the whole tree trembles and thrills because of the mother bird and her young ones. The poet probably wants us
to feel how a dead-like tree becomes alive because it has given space to the bird and her young ones. The birds have
gotten shelter and the tree in return has got life.

The goldfinch is thus the engine of her family which includes the Laburnum tree as well. According to the poet it
fills them with fuel i.e. it gives food to the young ones and thrill to the tree. Having done that, she again flies to a
branch-end. Only her dark-coloured striped face is visible as it is yellow and hence becomes invisible in the yellow
leaves of the tree.

Stanza 3

Reaching the branch-end of the tree, it makes strange but sweet chirping sounds and then begins his journey towards
the infinite i.e. the sky and the Laburnum Tree again becomes silent and dead-like.

Q. Why is the laburnum top silent?

Ans. The top of the laburnum tree is silent because the young ones of the goldfinch are anxiously waiting for their
mother with food.

Q. What is the significance of ‘yellow’ in the poem?

Ans. Both the laburnum tree and the goldfinch’s feathers are yellow in color. So the babies escape being noticed by
any predator with this effect. Thus the yellow colour provides high security to the young ones of the Goldfinch.
Q. What happens to the laburnum when the goldfinch arrives?

Ans. The sudden arrival and movement of the bird stirs the tree. Her little ones are excited to see the mother and
they start chirruping and fluttering their wings.

Q. Why is the goldfinch stealing into her nest? / Why does she enter the thickness?

Ans. The cautious goldfinch enters the tree with great care that no predator would spot her babies which are securely
housed in the nest.

Q. What is the machine that starts up with the arrival of the bird?

Ans. As the bird arrives, her little ones become excited to see the mother and they start chirruping and fluttering
their wings to get food from their mother. It seems as the machine starts up.

Q. What is the bird’s movement compared to?

Ans. The bird’s movement is compared to a lizard. It is sleek, abrupt and alert like a lizard.

Q. What is the engine of her family?

Ans. The nest with the little ones is the engine of the goldfinch family. They start chirruping and fluttering their
wings to see their mother with food.

Q. Why does the bird flirt out to a branch end showing her barred face identity mask?

Ans. The bird is very cautious about the safety of her young ones. She also reveals her identity to the babies by
showing her barred face. It is the mark of her recognition and reminds them that she is their mother.

Q. Where does the bird fly to?

Ans. The bird leaves its babies and flies in search of more food before they feel hungry again.

Q. What happens to the laburnum with the mother’s departure?

Ans. With the mother bird’s departure, the laburnum tree becomes calm and quiet again