English (Core) · Ch 6 — The Voice of the Rain
Summary
Summary
- Poet: Walt Whitman (1819-1892), American poet and father of free verse.
- Opening: The poet asks the soft-falling shower, "who art thou?" and, "strange to tell," the rain answers him.
- The rain's reply: It calls itself the "Poem of Earth."
- The cycle: It rises, impalpable and eternal, from the land and the bottomless sea, up to heaven (clouds) — "changed, and yet the same" — then descends to wash the droughts and dust of the globe.
- Life-giving role: It brings to life seeds that were "latent, unborn," gives back life to its own origin, and makes the earth pure and beautiful.
- The song parallel (last two lines, in brackets): A song, like the rain, leaves its birthplace, fulfils its purpose, and — reck'd or unreck'd — returns with love to its source. …