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Voice of The Rain Class 11

In this poem, the speaker has a conversation with raindrops falling from the sky. The rain describes its journey from vapor rising from the earth to clouds and falling again as rain, refreshing the land. The speaker compares the rain's role to a poet's role, with poems being "born in the heart" and affecting readers, before returning to the poet through feedback, like rain watering the earth. Whitman saw poetry as playing a vital role in the world, like water in the natural cycle.

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Rohan Patel
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2K views2 pages

Voice of The Rain Class 11

In this poem, the speaker has a conversation with raindrops falling from the sky. The rain describes its journey from vapor rising from the earth to clouds and falling again as rain, refreshing the land. The speaker compares the rain's role to a poet's role, with poems being "born in the heart" and affecting readers, before returning to the poet through feedback, like rain watering the earth. Whitman saw poetry as playing a vital role in the world, like water in the natural cycle.

Uploaded by

Rohan Patel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Walt

Whitman: Poems Summary and Analysis of


"The Voice of the Rain"
Summary:
In this poem, the speaker recounts a conversation he
had with the falling raindrops. He asks the rain, "And
who art thou?" and strangely, the rain answers,
calling itself "the poem of the Earth." The rain goes on
to describe how it rises intangibly (as vapor) out of
the land and sea and floats up to heaven, where it
changes form and becomes a cloud. Then it falls back
to Earth to refresh the drought-filled land, allowing
seeds to grow into something vital and beautiful. The
speaker the equates the role of the rain to a poet's
role in crafting this "song" (or poem, because
Whitman refers to his poems as songs
throughout Leaves of Grass). He goes on to write that
the "song" is born in the poet's heart. It leaves the
poet's soul and and changes form, but is always the
same at its core and eventually returns to the poet as
love from his readers.
Analysis:
Similar to most of Whitman's poems, "The Voice of
the Rain" does not follow any specific form, rhyme
scheme, or meter; it is written in free verse. It is made
up of one stanza with nine distinct lines, but some of
the lines are so long that they bleed into the next. The
first two lines contain the speaker's question to the
rain ("And who art thou?"). The rain's response
makes up the remaining six lines. Whitman places the

final line in parenthesis in order to separate the


speaker's words from the rain's.
At the end of the poem, the speaker compares poetry
to the rain - equating art with Earth's most essential
element. Here, Whitman reveals the high level of
importance he put on his poems (and poetry in
general). Whitman treated his poems like his
children. He put all of his emotional energy into his
work and then released his poems into the world like
water evaporating into the air. Each reader then has a
different relationship with Whitman's words, which
changes the effect of the poem while maintaining its
spirit. Then, the readers rain praise, criticism, love,
and hate back down onto Whitman. After that, the
poem occupies a different role in the poet's life.
Whitman's comparison between poems and rain is
demonstrative of his transcendental beliefs. Rather
than associate his poetry with something modern and
manmade, he instead chooses to associate it with the
eternal cycles of the natural world. He did not write
poetry for the purpose of making a splash. He wanted
his work to be affecting, vital, and eternal - just like
nature. He describes his audience as "drouths,
atomies, dust-layers of the globe" as if reading
Whitman's poetry is all they need to flourish and
grow.

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