[223] There Will Come Soft Rains
| There Will Come Soft Rains |
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
-- Sara Teasdale
|
This is probably Teasdale's best-known poem, though, I feel, more for the
message than because it stands out as a poem. The notion that Man is rushing
headlong towards his own destruction is one that has embedded itself in the
racial consciousness ever since Hiroshima, and one that neither the cold war
nor an ever increasing sense of future shock have done anything to dispel.
Of course, one of the first writers to spring to mind is Bradbury, who has
written a number of stories on the theme, one of them[1] based explicitly on
the poem. However, there is a significant difference to be noted. Bradbury's
stories - and, indeed, those of a score of other sf writers - all convey a
profound sense of tragedy, of loss; which, of course, is hardly surprising.
Teasdale, on the other hand, manages to convey a sense of detachment, even
indifference. Indeed, one feels, the earth will neither know nor care that
mankind has come and gone. And that may be, in the final analysis, the most
disturbing prospect of all.
[1] 'There Will Come Soft Rains'; see
http://home.earthlink.net/~hiflyer/APbradbury/twcsr.htm for an analysis of
the story
Biography etc:
See the previous Teasdale poem, Morning, poem #113
-martin
From: Brenden Matthews <brenden1@>
see "There will come soft rains" by Ray Bradbury from Adventures in Tomorrow, Greenberg publisher, New York, 1951
From: "TIEKEY THE BABY" <tiekey@>
can I have permission to repost
From: ToniDuAZ@
I have always loved this poem. Being of the nuclear war generation, it
always gives me peace to think that there is the possibility that even if man were
to annihilate man, perhaps the earth would only just sigh momentarily with our
passing and some type of Eden would exist without our chaos. This of course
precludes nuclear winter etc.
Toni
From: "Stephanie Reynolds" <tigers_baby1212@>
<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV class=RTE><FONT color=#cc99cc>I love your poem "there will come soft rains", this poem just makes me think. I just finished high school, but whail in it we read this poem and for two years after hearing it I wanted it. You are the coolest poet, this is one of the best poems I've ever read, and it is my favorite! thanks for the <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt; COLOR: #cc99cc; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">inspiration</SPAN>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=RTE><U><FONT color=#cc99cc></FONT></U> </DIV>
<DIV class=RTE><U><FONT color=#cc99cc>Stephanie Reynolds<IMG height=19 src="http://graphics.hotmail.com/i.p.emsmile.gif" width=19></FONT></U></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr> <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMAENUS/2746??PS=47575">Make the most of your family vacation with tips from the MSN Family Travel Guide!</a> </html>
From: "R K ROBERTS" <roberts4816@>
its a great poem