24th April, 2023

Monday
Ms. Ash

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CLSP 8 English Literature
Paper 4: Unseen
There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale/ IA 1 Introduction

Part I: Warm Up (Individual/ Whole Class)

● On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is nature to mankind?

○ 9 -> Humans depend on nature
○ 11 -> Without nature, humans would not exist
○ 99 000 -> Nature also dictates how humans live

[Recap]

There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

(War Time)

(Line 1) There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
(Line 2) And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

(Line 3) And frogs in the pools singing at night,

(Line 4) And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

(Line 5) Robins will wear their feathery fire

(Line 6) Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

(Line 7) And not one will know of the war, not one
(Line 8) Will care at last when it is done.

(Line 9) Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

(Line 10) If mankind perished utterly;

(Line 11) And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,

(Line 12) Would scarcely know that we were gone.

● Before we analyze the poem together, what do you think the poem is about?
○ Portraying the themes of peace and hope

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Monday
Ms. Ash

■ Beauty of nature (after the war is finished)

○ About wartime
■ Creating an image (Lines 1 to 6) about nature
● Not human beings
■ Nature overpowers the power of humanity
● Nature wouldn’t notice if humans perished
○ (Lines 9 to 10) Nature will be at peace when war is over (winter)
■ If mankind perished, that will bring more peace to nature
■ Spring represents peace and flourishing life

Part II: First Impressions/ Structure [Recap] (Whole Class)

There are several elements in the poem that we can identify at first glance…

● Poetic form
○ The poem has 12 lines and 6 couplets
○ Sense of simplicity and straightforwardness

● Rhyme Scheme
○ The rhyme scheme is AA BB CC DD EE FF
○ Predictable and constant

● Speaker

○ Unspecified
■ Unknown age/ gender/ context
○ Pronouns identify the speaker as human
■ “We”
○ Message: Nature would flourish without us humans
■ Nature would not care or mind if mankind no longer existed
■ The speaker acts as a narrating voice
● The absence of (identifiable) humans suits the idea of a
world completely uninfluenced by mankind

● Setting

○ The poem takes place during “War Time”

■ Written in 1918

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Monday
Ms. Ash

■ World War I

○ Set in a rural environment with animals, plants and bodies of water

■ In full bloom or flourishing during springtime

○ The “low fence-wire” on which robins perch is the only suggestion that

humans were at all present

● Theme(s)

○ War and Peace/ Power of Nature/ Calm in The Eye of the Storm/

Humanity and Conflict/ The Delusion of Human Superiority

■ Humans and nature might have been struggling to co-exist

■ Humanity is not concerned with the upkeep of nature

● Instead, they are preoccupied with their own destruction

● However, the reality is that the rest of the world does not

care about trivial matters such as human conflicts

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Monday
Ms. Ash

English Journal (EJ): Poetic Devices/ Terminology

Word Definition

Alliteration The repetition of two or more words that start with the same sound in a phrase/
sentence

E.g.: She sells seashells by the seashore

Anaphora The repetition of a word/ phrase at the beginning of multiple lines

(uh-na-fur-a)
E.g.: Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I’ll be watching you

Couplets Two consecutive lines of poetry, often rhyming, that create a complete thought/ idea

E.g.: I will not play at tug o’ war.

I’d rather play at hug o’ war

(Poetic) Form A description of what the poem looks like/ the way it is structured

E.g: groupings of lines, stanzas

Juxtaposition The placement of two contrasting elements/ concepts side by side/ close together to
highlight their differences/ explore their relationship

E.g.: old vs. new/ kindness vs. cruelty/ past vs. present

Imagery Can be categorized in 7 ways, relating to one’s senses:

1) Visual (Sight): The reader can visualize the picture being described

2) Auditory/ Aural (Hearing): The reader can imagine the sound of what is being
described

3) Gustatory (Taste): The reader can imagine the taste being described

4) Olfactory (Smell): The reader can imagine the smell being described

5) Tactile (Touch): The reader can imagine how the item feels to touch

6) Kinesthetic (Movement): The reader can sense the movement being described

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Ms. Ash

7) Thermal (Temperature): The reader can imagine how hot/cold something is

Metaphor Makes an indirect comparison by using words such as “is”

E.g.: My pillow is a cloud

Personification Describing something non-human as having human characteristics

E.g.: Feelings, thoughts, actions, behavior, gender

The wind played hide-and-go-seek among the trees.

Repetition When a word/ phrase is repeated two or more times

E.g.: Ayla sneezed, and sneezed, and sneezed.

Rhyme scheme The pattern of sounds that repeat at the end of a line or stanza

E.g.: earth/ birth, day/way

Stanza A ‘paragraph’/ group of lines in a poem

Theme A main idea or central message

Part III: Finding Literary Devices in the Poem [Continuation] (Group Work/ Whole
Class)

● Alliteration
○ “feathery fire”, “ whistling their whims”, “shimmering sound”
■ Adds emphasis to certain words and phrases
■ Makes the language of the poem itself more musical and pleasant
to the ear

● Anaphora
○ (Line 2) And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
(Line 3) And frogs in the pools singing at night,
(Line 4) And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
■ Speaker listing off the features of nature when World War I has
ended and human beings cease to exist
■ Adds a satisfying and consistent rhythm to the speaker’s words,
even as the speaker contemplates the end of humanity

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Ms. Ash

● Juxtaposition
○ Between the peacefulness of nature and the violence and destruction of
humanity
■ (Line 7) And not one will know of the war, not one
(Line 8) Will care at last when it is done.
■ (Line 9) Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
(Line 10) If mankind perished utterly;
■ (Line 11) And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
(Line 12) Would scarcely know that we were gone.
● The speaker is suggesting that nothing in the natural world
would mind/ be bothered by/ would be concerned with
outcome of the war
● The world would remain unchanged even if mankind
perished
● (Line 7) And not one will know of the war, not one
(Line 8) Will care at last when it is done.
● (Line 9) Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
(Line 10) If mankind perished utterly;
● (Line 11) And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
(Line 12) Would scarcely know that we were gone.
● The juxtaposition between serenity of nature and the
carnage of war is apparent/ highlighted to readers

● Personification
○ The speaker personifies spring by referring to the season as a woman
who, upon awakening, hardly even notices that humans have perished/
disappeared from the face of the earth
■ By talking about spring as it possesses agency, the speaker
presents nature as an entity that is bursting with life

● Imagery
○ Very much present in the first half of the poem

○ Visual
■ The speaker describes “wild plum trees” that have bloomed a
“tremulous white”
● The word “tremulous” (EJ: timid/ fearful) suggests that the
tree’s white petals are fluttering gingerly in a gentle
breeze

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Ms. Ash

○ This offers a tranquil, serene and meditative image

○ Foreshadowing the war/ the carnage to come
■ To make the scene feel even more vibrant, the speaker mentions
the “feathery fire” of some nearby robins
● Serves as a pop of color that illustrates the mesmerizing/
enchanting/ overwhelming/ breathtaking beauty
○ Metaphorically indicates the explosions on the
battlefield
○ Auditory
■ Line 3 And frogs in the pools singing at night,
● Frogs are joining in the chorus by croaking
○ The reader will find it easier to imagine themselves in
the rural environment where the only activity is
created by nature itself
○ Through their description of these sounds, the
speaker makes it appear to readers as if the poem’s
setting is filled with music

○ Olfactory
■ Line 1 There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
● The speaker focuses on “soft[ly]” falling rain will create an
earthy smell from the ground
● This creates a feeling of peacefulness/ serenity/
tranquility, which invites readers to imagine the calm that
accompanies soft rainfall

Part IV: How do these poetic elements help to effectively convey the poet’s
intention to the reader? (Whole Class)

● Purpose of the poem: The purpose of the poem is to highlight the

insignificance of man in light of the power that nature possess to flourish
independently

● Poetic structure
○ Very simple and straightforward

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Ms. Ash

■ Just as we take nature for granted, readers might take the poem
for granted (underestimate the power of both)
● Links to the purpose (highlights the insignificance of man
in both contexts)
● Anaphora
○ Lists out all the features of nature which are peaceful and flourishing
○ While mankind is in the process of destroying itself
■ Emphasizes the power of nature through its ability to carry on
despite the destructive times of war, which mankind was unable
to overcome in this context
■ So many elements of nature that are thriving vs. one element
which is, humanity/ humankind
● Themes
○ The Delusion of Human Superiority

■ This big idea, that humans have assumed that they are better than
all other species in nature, helps to highlight the insignificance of
man in light of the power that nature possess to flourish
independently because humans are under the impression that their
tools make them more powerful than nature. However, this is
positioned in the poem as false because it is evident that humans
cannot be independent without nature, but not vice versa.