The voice of the rain

Q1 :
1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which
lines indicate this?
2. What does the phrase "strange to tell" mean?
3. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words
indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.
4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem?
Compare it with what you have learnt in science.
5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
6. List the pair of opposites found in the poem.

Answer :
1. The poem begins in a conversational tone. The two voices in the
poem are the voice of the poet and the voice of the rain.
The lines that indicate the voice of the poet and the rain are, “And who
art thou? Said I to the soft-falling shower,” and the lines that indicate the
voice of the rain are, “I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain”.
2. The phrase “strange to tell” means that it is quite strange for the poet
to believe and express in words that the soft-falling rain replied to his
question. At the beginning of the poem, the poet inquires the rain about
its identity, to which the rain replies that it is the 'Poem of Earth'.
3. The lines, “I am the Poem of Earth”, said by the voice of the rain,
reflects a connection between rain and poetry. This connection becomes
more conspicuous in the final two lines,
“(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfillment, wandering
Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns)”.
In these lines, the poet draws similarities between rain and music
observing that the life-cycle of rain and song are alike. The song issues
from the heart of the poet and travels to reach others. It wanders and,
whether heard and enjoyed or not, eventually returns to its creator with
all due love. Similarly, rain originates from the earth, and after fulfilling its
role of spreading beauty and purity, returns to its origin. Both are
perpetual in nature. Moreover, the sound of the soft-falling rain is in itself
a kind of music.
4. In the poem, the water rises from the 'land and the bottomless sea' to
reach the sky. There, it transforms itself into vague formation of clouds,
different in their structure than the water from which they originate. After
wandering, these clouds descend to the earth in the form of rain to
provide relief to the drought-ridden areas and infuse life into the unborn
and latent seeds. The rain renders the earth with beauty and purity.
In science, we learn the cyclical process of rain in terms like
evaporation, condensation, precipitation, flowing rivers, ground water
and ocean water etc, while in the poem the same process becomes
interesting and unusual. The rain speaks itself to describe its course.
The poem puts forward how rain never loses its core essence even after
changing into various forms.
5. The last two lines of the poem have been put within brackets as they
do not form the part of the conversation between the poet and the rain.
The lines in the bracket indicate the reflections, observations and
thoughts of the poet. He makes observations about the life-course of a
song and draws similarities between the life-cycle of a song and rain.
6. (a) Day, night
(b) Reck'd, unreck'd
(c) Rise, descend
Q2 : Notice the following sentence patterns.
1. And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.
2. I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.
3. Eternal I rise
4. For song…duly with love returns
Rewrite the above sentences in prose.

Answer :
1. I enquired the soft-falling rain about its identity.
2. The voice of the rain introduced itself as the Poem of Earth.
3. The voice of the rain explained its upward movement towards the sky
as eternal.
4. The poet says that, similar to the natural cycle of the rain, a song
originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after
 fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet
with all due love.
It was raining. The poet came to his balcony and looked up at the falling drops
and asked, “who are you?” Surprisingly, there came an answer and that was – “I
am the Poem of the earth.” The poet was dumbstruck! Rain is talking to him?
He listened.

The rain went on in its usual sound – that hissing sound with its thunder and a
thousand other sounds. The poet claims that he was able to understand the rain’s
language so he decided to write a poem, translating the rain’s golden words.
What the rain said was a little science and a little boasting.

Science – The water cycle

 Evaporation
 Condensation
 Precipitation
Boasting – Rain, the life giver
 Laving the droughts
 Giving life to seeds
 Beautifying the earth.
Analysis
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.
Meaning
 And who art thou – Who are you?
 Said I – I asked
 Shower – rain
 Eternal – Forever
 Impalpable – Cannot be touched; intangible
 Bottomless sea – Deep sea
 Upward – Going high
 Heaven – Sky
 Whence – From where
 Vaguely – Dimly; not clearly
“And, who are you?” I asked the softly falling rain. Strangely, the rain game
me a reply and I am translating the rain’s reply for you. The rain said, “I am
the poem (lyrics + music) of the earth. I rise from seas, rivers, etc.
(evaporation) and go up to the sky and remain their (condensation). I have been
 doing it always, from the beginning of the earth (eternal). Once I reach the sky,
I get a new appearance and shape yet I am water.
1. What did the poet ask the rain?
The Poet asked the rain who it was.
2. What was strange about the rain’s reply?
The strange fact about the rain reply was that rain happened to give a reply. A
rain, by nature, is never expected to give an answer.
3. In what sense is rain the poem of the earth?
Rain is the poem of the earth because a poem is music. Like a piece of music
requires lyrics and accompaniment, the soft falling rain is musical to ears. Each
rain drop is a sound played for accompaniment and when all the sounds are
collectively taken, it is like a grand music with endless number of music
instruments.
4. What are the permanent qualities of the rain?
Rain is permanently water although it changes its shape first to vapour and then
become clouds.
5. Where does rain rise from? Rain rises from land and bottomless seas in the
form of vapour.
6. Explain, “altogether changed, and yet the same.”
During evaporation, water turns into vapor and ascends to the sky and becomes
clouds. Though clouds are different in appearance yet they are originally water.
7. How does water change its shape?
When vapour reaches the the sky, it changes its appearance complete to form
clouds of abstract, changeable shapes. Yet, at its core, it remains the same as it
was at birth.
I descend to lave the droughts,
atomies, dust-layers of the globe.
And all that in them without me
were seeds only, latent, unborn;
Meaning
 Descend – Come down from a height; fall
 Lave – Wash; give water
 Droughts – Dryness caused by absence of rain/water
 Dust – (here) Soil
 Atomies – Skeletons; dry seeds, etc
 Globe – Earth
 And all that in them – All the seeds buried in the earth
 Latent – Not able to grow (from a seed/plant)
Paraphrase
“From the sky, I start falling (descend) down as rain. I provide water to the
drought-hit areas of the earth and remove drought. I further go deep down into
the earth and give water to the underground earth as well. If I do not go deep
 down, the seeds buried in the earth will not sprout, will not grow. They will just
remain unborn!
1. How does rain descend? What for?
Rain descends by falling from the clouds. It falls for the unborn seeds, for
laving the droughts and for cooling the dust layers of the earth.
2. What is the effect of the rain?
When it rains, water returns to the earth as little droplets which penetrate into
the dust and rejuvenate the drought-ridden, dry land. New plants find life which
would have otherwise remained hidden and unborn inside the land as mere
seeds. Thus, this perpetual cyclic lifestyle ensures that the rain retures to its
origin, the earth, giving it life, and making it pure and beautiful.
3. What is feared to happen in the absence of rain?
If rain absents itself, the seeds buried in the earth will not grow to plants. The
earth will be dusty and drought-hit all the time. Besides, without the purification
process (evaporation), the seas and rivers will be stagnant and polluted.
4. At one point rain sounds a little proud of itself? Explain.
The rain feels extremely proud of itself. It claims that life is not possible
without it. It clearly says that all the seeds will remain unborn in its absence.
The earth will suffer from drought and famine.
And forever, by day and night,
I give back life to my own origin,
and make pure and beautify it;
Paraphrase
“Always, during day and night, I rain down and become water again and again.
During the process of evaporation (steam), condensation (clouds) and
precipitation (rain), I purify myself and all the water-bodies where I live.
1. How does water purify itself and the earth? Rain purifies itself through
evaporation and condensation. Boiling and then cooling is the best practice of
purification. Water purifies the earth by pouring down on hills and valleys.
During this process, water cleanses the polluted air as it falls as rain and washes
the dirt away from the face of the earth. It also replaces the stagnant water of the
lakes and seas with newly purified water.
2. What is rain’s own origin? How does rain give its origin back?
Rain own origin is the state of water. By going through the process of rain, it
goes up to the sky, remains there for a while and the it returns to the earth and
that way it turns back to water again.
(For, song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
Reck’d or unreck’d, duly with love returns.)
Meaning

 For – Because
 Issueing – Starting
 Birth-place – Rivers and seas
 Fulfillment – After raining for the earth
 Wandering – Clouds wander across the sky
 Reck’d or unreck’d – Whether you liked or disliked; whether you cared for or
not.
 Duly – Rightly
 Duly with love returns –
A song comes out of a singer and later moves to the listener. Listener may or
may not like the song but the song is not worried about that. It’s ultimate aim is
to sing!

1. Explain, “recked or unrecked.”

Reck means having care or regard. Here rain says that it is not waiting for
anyone to regard it, give thanks to it or have concern for it. Whether people love
or hate, wait for it or do not wait for it, the rain is bound to rain.
2. How is rain’s life similar to that of a song?
The poet realizes that the rain’s life is similar to that of any song. A song’s birth
place is the poet’s heart. Once complete, it is passed on (wanders) from one
person to another. A song may be well regarded or unnoticed. Similarly, the rain
may be loved or hated by people but rain doesn’t mind if it is disregarded.