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The Voice of The Rain - Study Material

The poem "The Voice of the Rain" by Walt Whitman explores the connection between rain and poetry. In the poem, the speaker has an imaginary conversation with raindrops who say they are "the Poem of Earth," rising from the land and sea and nourishing all life before returning to its origin. Similarly, poetry originates from the poet's heart and, like rain, circulates among people before returning to its source. Both rain and poetry play important roles in enriching the world.

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155 views

The Voice of The Rain - Study Material

The poem "The Voice of the Rain" by Walt Whitman explores the connection between rain and poetry. In the poem, the speaker has an imaginary conversation with raindrops who say they are "the Poem of Earth," rising from the land and sea and nourishing all life before returning to its origin. Similarly, poetry originates from the poet's heart and, like rain, circulates among people before returning to its source. Both rain and poetry play important roles in enriching the world.

Uploaded by

Chiku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Study Material

Class: XI Topic: The Voice of the Rain


by Walt Whitman
Subject: English (Core)

About the Poet

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and
journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism,
incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American
canon, often called the father of free verse, though he did not invent it.
Theme
‘The Voice of Rain’ was published in Outing, a periodical, in 1885. It was later included in Whitman’s
best-known work, Leaves of Grass. Through the short twelve lines of the poem, Whitman explores
themes of nature and writing. The poem signifies the eternal role that the rain plays in nurturing,
quenching and purifying the various elements of Earth. The rain returns the favour to its place of
origin from where it rises unseen from the depths of the water and from the land.
Introduction:
‘The Voice of the Rain’ by Walt Whitman is a lovely, poem in which the speaker describes the nature
of rain, poetry, and how they are connected through experience. The poem 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- of making it lovelier. The poem is a free verse without
any rhyme scheme. It lacks a specific form, metre and consists of single stanza having 12 lines.
Explanation
Lines 1-6
“And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form’d, altogether changed,
and yet the same,”
Paraphrase: "Who are you?" I (the poet) asked the light rain, which, oddly enough, replied with the
following: "I (the Rain) am the Poem of Earth," the rain said. "In an everlasting cycle, I rise as vapor
from the land and sea to the sky. From there, while in the form of a cloud, both different and the same
from what I was before,
Lines 7-12
“I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,

And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;

And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own

origin, and make pure and beautify it;

(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,

Reck’d or unreck’d. duly with love returns.)”


Paraphrase: I (the Rain) fall to wash away the Earth's drought and fill every part of it with
water. Without me, everything on Earth was like a seed that couldn't grow. Forever, throughout day
and night, I replenish the places I come from, making them beautiful and clean (just as songs, well
after being written, eventually return lovingly to the places or people they came from, regardless of
whether they were heard or appreciated).
Central Idea
The central idea of the poem The Voice of the Rain is that both rain and poetry hold a significant
position on the earth. The rain originates from the bottom of the seas in the form of water vapors. It
rises to the sky and from there it falls down on the earth and helps the life on it to exist and flourish.
Similarly, the poetry originates from the heart of the poet and goes to different people who appreciate
and criticize it. But in the end, love comes for the poet from all the directions.
Poetic Devices
1) Personification (human attributes lent to inanimate objects)- voice lent to rain
2) Metaphor (implied comparison)- “I am the Poem of Earth”
3) Hyperbole (exaggeration for effect)- ‘bottomless sea’
4) Oxymoron (contradictory terms joined together for an effect) - day and night,
reck’d and unreck’d
5) Paradox (a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense
and yet is perhaps true)- “I give back life to my own origin”
6) Parallelism (connection and similarity)- between rain and song of a poet (last two lines)
7) Imagery (mental pictures)- ‘soft falling shower’, ‘I rise impalpable out of the
land…’, ‘descend to lave the droughts…’ etc.
Vocabulary
 Eternal is something which is there for ever, everlasting.

 Impalpable – Something which cannot be felt with touch, intangible


 Vaguely – not certain, unclear
 Thou - an archaic form of "you."
 An impalpable substance is one that is intangible, or unable to be touched.
 Whence is an archaic way of saying "from which."
 Lave means to wash (usually with water).
 Drouth is another word for "drought."
 Atomy is an old word for skeleton. In context, "atomies" describes the bone-dry, emaciated state of
the Earth before rain arrives.
 Dust-layers are large clouds of dust on the Earth's surface. They seem here to indicate harsh, dry
weather conditions.
 Something that is latent is full of potential, but undeveloped and still waiting to grow.
 Issuing, in this context, means "going out from" or "arising from."
 "Reck'd or unreck'd" means "heard or unheard" or "felt or unfelt."
 Duly means "appropriately" or "fittingly."

------------------------------------ The End ------------------------------------

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