In the second couple, Teasdale’s speaker provides more details about the moments of this day. At this point, the reader does not yet know why this moment is so special or why it will become so. These birds, in particular swallows, will be circling, watching, and making “their shimmering sound.” All of these elements are converging to form a perfect moment of peace. The leaves and mud and all manner of creatures will be turned over, and their scent that of earth, death, and life will fill the air.Īt this moment, there will also be birds overhead. There will come during the day a “soft rain.” This rain will bring out all of the smells in the ground. In the first of Teasdale’s rhyming couplets, the narrator describes a natural moment in which everything will be aligned and rejuvenated. There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,Īnd swallows circling with their shimmering sound For example, “And,” which starts lines two, three, and four and then later lines seven and eleven.Īnalysis of There Will Come Soft Rains Stanza One For example, “feathery fire” in line five and “Whistling” and “whims” in line six.Īnaphora is another kind of repetition, one that’s focused on the use and reuse of the same word at the beginning of multiple lines. Alliteration is another common device, one that is concerned with the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of multiple words. For example, the transition between lines five and six as well as seven and eight. The latter is a common formal device that occurs when a poet cuts off a line of text before the natural conclusion of a sentence or phrase. Teasdale makes use of several literary devices in ‘There Will Come Soft Rains.’ These include but are not limited to anaphora, alliteration, and enjambment. This rhyme scheme gives the poem a “sing-song” like pattern that carries the reader from the beginning to the end. Each couple rhymes with the corresponding end sounds. ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by Sara Teasdale is a short six stanza poem that is constructed from perfectly rhyming couplets or sets of two lines. This suggests that after humanity “perished utterly,” the world would be reborn in a new way, one that flourishes more completely without humankind. At the end of the poem, “Spring” is a symbol of new life and rebirth. Nature, the poet says, does not concern itself with humanity’s disputes. In this case, when it is associated with war, it’s possible to consider it as a symbol for neutrality. For example, the color “White” in the fourth line of the poem is a common symbol of innocence or purity. In ‘There Will Come Soft Rains,’ Teasdale uses a few interesting symbols. Spring will come whether humans are there or not. While this is, in part, a depressing message, Teasdale concludes the poem in such a way that the speaker can’t help but feel at peace with this image of nature, ever-lasting and independent. In fact, if humanity destroys itself, “Not one” kind of non-human life would care that it had occurred. The latter, conflict, is mentioned in the seventh line of the poem when the poet talks about “war.” It alludes to the fact that nature, from birds to trees, don’t know and don’t care about human conflict. In ‘There Will Come Soft Rains,’ the poet engages with themes of nature and conflict. Additionally, they would not notice if every person on the planet disappeared, so little do humans fit into their world. It would not impact them in the slightest. The second half of the poem describes how nature and “Spring” would not notice if all of humankind was at war. The wind, trees, and creatures of the world are in alignment and are content with one another. There are birds circling, singing out their “shimmering sound,” as well as frogs croaking in pools of water at night. The poem begins with the speaker describing a number of scenes of peace. “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale describes the Earth as if it would be without humankind and the lack of regard that Nature and Spring hold for human life.
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