The Voice of Rain

Literary devices in "The Voice of the Rain" by Walt Whitman:

Personification: The rain is personified as a speaker with a voice and a message.

Metaphor: The rain is compared to a poem, suggesting that it is both beautiful and meaningful.

Simile: The rain is compared to a song, suggesting that it is both melodic and rhythmic.

Imagery: The poet uses vivid imagery to describe the rain and its effects on the world, such as "soft-
falling shower," "I rise impalpable out of the land," and "descend to lave the droughts."

Repetition: The poet repeats the phrase "I am" throughout the poem to emphasize the rain's
presence and its importance.

Parallelism: The poet uses parallelism in the last two lines of the poem to compare the rain and the
song of a poet, suggesting that they both add worth to their creator after the fulfilment of their
respective objectives.

In addition to these literary devices, Whitman also uses a variety of other poetic techniques, such as
alliteration, assonance, and enjambment, to create a rich and textured poem.

1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this? (NCERT)

Ans. The poem, ‘The Voice of the Rain’, presents a dialogue between the poet and the rain itself. In
this poem, the poet asks rain who it is. The poet gets an answer as the rain itself gives its
introduction. Hence, the two voices in the poem are those of rain and the poet. These are

(i) In the poet’s voice and who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.

(ii) In the voice of the rain and I am the poem of the Earth, said the voice of the rain.

2. What does the phrase ‘strange to tell’ mean? (NCERT)

Ans. The phrase expresses the poet’s surprise at the rain’s ability

to reply and use words. The belief is that rain cannot speak like living beings. The poet believes that
the readers will also find it surprising and weird that the rain should speak and answer the poet’s
question.

3. How does the rain justify its claim ‘I am the Poem of Earth’?

Ans. The rain calls itself the poem of the Earth because the poem rendered by the poet has the task
of bringing joy, happiness, life to its readers. Similarly when the rain falls down over Earth, a rhythm
or music is created . That’s why the rain calls itself the ‘Poem of Earth’.

4. Describe the never ending cycle of rain.

5. Why does the rain call itself ‘impalpable’?

Ans. ‘Impalpable’ means something that cannot be felt by touching or seeing. When water takes the
form of vapour, it is not visible to the human eye and nor can we feel its touch. The vapour rises to
the sky, condenses and forms clouds which cause rain. Though we are aware of its presence, the
process remains invisible to us. Hence, the rain has rightly called itself ‘impalpable’.

6. What happens when it rains after a long hot spell?

Ans. After a long hot spell, everything is dried up on Earth. When it rains, all the dust that has
accumulated on Earth gets washed away, giving a new fresh look to nature. Moreover the seeds
which were lying latent till now, get germinated with the help of rain and new trees and plants start
growing.

7. Latent seeds get a life by rain. Explain.

Ans. The seeds lying on Earth require water to germinate and take shape. When it rains, the seeds
start germinating and change into the form of saplings. In this way, the seeds which would have
dried up or get wasted get a new lease of life by rain.

8. Why is rain essential for Earth?

Ans. If it doesn’t rain then Earth will remain parched, droughts will follow and the dust-layers will not
be washed away. There will be nothing to quench the thirst of the plants and trees and their seeds
will die.

9. How does the rain become the voice of Earth?

Ans. In the poem, ‘The Voice of the Rain’, the poet describes how the rain falls on Earth. He also asks
a question to the rain about it. He calls the showers of the rain as ‘Poem of Earth’ as the rain gives a
new lease of life to the scorched and parched Earth and falls on Earth in a rhythmic manner.
Actually, it is the voice of Earth as the slowly falling showers produce a very soft music and Earth
finds its expression only through the showers falling on it.

10. Why do you think the poet says the phrase ‘reck’d or unreck’d’?

Ans. The words have been poetically drafted. ‘Reck’d and unreck’d’ stand for reckoned and
unreckoned. The words literally mean cared and uncared for respectively. The poet says these words
to emphasise the fact that when it falls on the Earth, we sometimes take notice of it or sometimes
completely ignore it. But even if it is left uncared for, it completes its destiny and returns to
absorbed where it started from.

11. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?

(NCERT)
Ans. The last two lines of the poem have been put within brackets as they do not form a part of the
conversation between the poet and the rain. The lines in the brackets 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 the rain.

12. Justify the title ‘The Voice of the Rain’.

Ans. The whole poem is about the eternal process of rain and its benefits. Through the words of the
rain, the poet has tried to bring out the importance of rain for Earth, for plants and for man. As the
poet is translating what the rain is speaking through its own language (the sounds it makes when it
falls), the whole poem is about the rain talking to the poet. Thus, the title is justified.

13. Natural elements such as air and rain make no discrimination and bless everyone equally.
Comment on class distinction and inequality, which is a totally human creation.

Ans. Man’s existence on this Earth is short-lived but even in this short span, he has been responsible
for many wrong doings against other human beings. God has created everyone as equal. But it is
very unfortunate that man has divided this society on the basis of class, caste and other factors.

Man must learn from elements of nature which provide us fresh air, heat or water, without making
any distinction. But in human society class distinctions and caste distinctions both exist and
inequalities prevail in large numbers. It is high time that man must learn lessons from nature and
adopt universal brotherhood for the betterment of our society.

14. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain the
similarity between the two. (NCERT)

Ans. The last two lines of the poem (in brackets) indicate the parallel drawn between rain and music
(here it is called ‘song’, as a song always has music associated with it). In these lines, the poet
observes that the life-cycle of rain and a song are alike. The song issues from the singer 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 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.

15. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in

the poem? Compare it with what you have learnt

in science. (NCERT)

Ans. In the poem, water rises from the ‘land and the bottomless sea’ to reach the sky. There, it
transforms itself into vague formations of clouds, different in their structure than the water from
which they originated. After wandering, these clouds descend to Earth in the form of rain to provide
relief to the drought-ridden areas and infuse life into unborn and latent seeds. The rain gives Earth
beauty and purity. In science, we learn the cyclical process of rain using terms like evaporation,
condensation, precipitation, flowing rivers, ground water, ocean water etc, while in the poem the
same process becomes interesting and unusual. The rain speaks itself to describe its course. Thus,
both what is given in the poem and what we learn in science are similar.
16. The poem ‘The Voice of the Rain’ gives a hidden message that rain is essential for this Earth.
Write an article describing the importance of rain.

Ans.

As we all know, the three essentials for survival are water, food and air. The most important element
of weather is water. We get water in different forms of precipitation but rain is the most beneficial
of all types of precipitation. Rain helps in harvesting our crops that give us food to eat. Without rain,
no crops would grow and we would perish. Also, falling showers remove the dust in air, making our
air clean, because we need clean air to breathe. Rain water plays a key role in creating the climate of
certain areas. Its presence in the atmosphere provides replenishment of the moisture in cloud
systems. The most well-known and most important effect of rain water is to provide us with water
to drink. Without rain, there would be no life.

17. Rain is an eternal process benefiting mankind. Contrast it with human life which is short lived on
this Earth. Should we disturb these eternal elements of nature?

Ans. The poem ‘The Voice of the Rain’ beautifully shows the continued process of rain which sounds
like music to human ears, as it fulfils our needs. It is an ever going process which sustains human life
and provides us with food, pure air and green cover. On the other hand, human lives are mortal. We
come on this Earth for a short period and then depart without leaving any mark on this planet.
Moreover human beings, for their greed and selfish motives, indulge in destructive activities which
may disturb these eternal processes of nature. We must learn a lesson from nature. If we want
peaceful co-existence, we need not disturb the balance of nature, otherwise the whole of humanity
will be in danger. We must learn a lesson from such eternal processes and do something good for
humanity at large.