THE VOICE OF RAIN

-WALT WHITEMAN

BY: ZOYA KHAN

XI - HUMANITIES
 ABOUT THE POET
• Walt whitman was born on may 31, 1819, in west hills, on long island, new york. He was the
second son of Walter whitman, A house-builder, and Louisa van Velcro. In the 1820s and
1830s, the family, which consisted of nine children, lived in long island and Brooklyn, where
whitman attended the Brooklyn public schools.

• At the age of twelve, whitman began to learn the printer’s trade and fell in love with the
written word. Largely self-taught, he read voraciously, becoming acquainted with the works
of homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and the bible.

• Whitman worked as a printer in new york city until a devastating fire in the printing district
demolished the industry. In 1836, at the age of seventeen, he began his career as teacher in
the one-room schoolhouses of long island. He continued to teach until 1841, when he turned
to journalism as A full-time career.

• In Brooklyn, he continued to develop the unique style of poetry that later so astonished
ralph waldo Emerson. In 1855, whitman took out A copyright on the first edition of leaves
of grass, which consisted of twelve untitled poems and A preface. He published the volume
himself, and sent A copy to Emerson in July of 1855. Whitman released A second edition of
the book in 1856, containing thirty-two poems, A letter from Emerson praising the first
edition, and A long open letter by whitman in response.
• At the outbreak of the civil war, whitman vowed to live A “purged” and “cleansed” life. He worked as A
freelance journalist and visited the wounded at new york city–area hospitals. He then travelled to
Washington, D.C in December 1862 to care for his brother, who had been wounded in the war.

• Overcome by the suffering of the many wounded in Washington, whitman decided to stay and work in
the hospitals; he ended up staying in the city for eleven years. He took A job as A clerk for the bureau
of Indian affairs within the department of the interior, which ended when the secretary of the interior,
James Harlan, discovered that whitman was the author of leaves of grass, which Harlan found offensive.
After Harlan fired him, he went on to work in the attorney general's office.

• In 1873, whitman suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. A few months later he travelled to
Camden, new jersey, to visit his dying mother at his brother’s house. He ended up staying with his
brother until the 1882 publication of leaves of grass (James R. Osgood), which brought him enough
money to buy A home in Camden.

• In the simple two-story clapboard house, whitman spent his declining years working on additions and
revisions to his deathbed edition of leaves of grass (David McKay, 1891–92) and preparing his final
volume of poems and prose, good-bye my fancy (David McKay, 1891). After his death on march 26,
1892, whitman was buried in A tomb he designed and had built on A lot in Harleigh cemetery.

• Along with Emily Dickinson, he is considered one of America's most important poets.
 SUMMARY
• The voice of the rain’ celebrates rain and the accompanying water cycle that
supports life and benefits the earth. The poet recounts a ‘conversation’ he had
with the falling raindrops. He asks the rain, ‘and who art thou?’ And strangely,
the rain answers, calling itself ‘the poem of earth’. The rain says that it is born
in the form of intangible vapours that rise eternally from the earth’s land and
deep water bodies. It then reaches upwards towards heaven in the form of
clouds, impalpable, vaguely formed and altogether changed. Yet, at its core, it
remains the same as it was at birth. It, then, returns to its origin, the earth,
as raindrops to wash away the dust and rejuvenate the drought-ridden and dry
land.
• The poet compares the rain to a poem/song. A song is born in the heart of a
human and after giving pleasure and joy to one and all come back to the creator
in the form of appreciation. Similarly, rain originates from the earth and the
bottomless sea; soars up to heaven taking the form of clouds and comes down
to give joy to its birthplace (earth) and makes it clean, pure and beautiful.
 PARAPHRASE
1. “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's, Altogether Changed,
And Yet The Same.”

PARAPHRASE
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.
2. “I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe.
And all that in them without me
were seeds only, latent, unborn;”
PARAPHARSE
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!
3. “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.)
PARAPHARSE
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.
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!
 ANALYSIS
• Similar to most of Whiteman's poems, "the voice of the rain" does not follow any specific form, rhyme
scheme, or meter; it is written in free verse. It is made up of one stanza with nine distinct lines, but
some of the lines are so long that they bleed into the next. The first two lines contain the speaker's
question to the rain ("and who art thou?"). The rain's response makes up the remaining six lines.
Whitman places the final line in afterthought in order to separate the speaker's words from the rain's.
• At the end of the poem, the speaker compares poetry to the rain - equating art with earth's most
essential element. Here, Whiteman reveals the high level of importance he put on his poems (and poetry
in general). Whitman treated his poems like his children. He put all of his emotional energy into his
work and then released his poems into the world like water evaporating into the air. Each reader then
has a different relationship with Whiteman's words, which changes the effect of the poem while
maintaining its spirit. Then, the readers rain praise, criticism, love, and hate back down onto whitman.
After that, the poem occupies a different role in the poet's life.
• Whitman's comparison between poems and rain is demonstrative of his transcendental beliefs. Rather
than associate his poetry with something modern and manmade, he instead chooses to associate it with
the eternal cycles of the natural world. He did not write poetry for the purpose of making a splash. He
wanted his work to be affecting, vital, and eternal - just like nature. He describes his audience as
"drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe" as if reading Whitman's poetry is all they need to flourish
and grow.
 IMPORTANT NOTES
• Personification is the literary device used in this poem.
• There are two speakers in this poem – The poet and the rainfall.
• The poem begins with a conversational tone.
• The first two lines form the question put by the poet to the rainfall, and
the rest constitutes the answer of the rainfall
• There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Both originate from a
source, rise up, reach fulfilment, wander about and finally return to their
origin.
• The present poem is a nature poem that deals with the cyclic movement of
rainfall
QUOTES BY WALT WHITMAN
• “Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and
shadows will fall behind you."
• "Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss
that which insults your soul."
• "Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful
flowers where I can walk undisturbed."
• "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the
journey-work of the stars."
• "I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am
as good as the best."
• "The beauty of independence, departure, actions
that rely on themselves."
• "Let your soul stand cool and composed before a
million universes."
• "To me, every hour of the day and night is an
unspeakably perfect miracle."
• "A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more
than the metaphysics of books."