“Rain” Introduction

• Written in 1916, during his training as a World War I soldier, Edward Thomas's "Rain" contemplates the solitude of life and the inevitability of death. The poem's speaker lies awake and alone at night, listening to a "wild rain" outside. Though he sympathizes with all "the living and the dead" under the rainstorm, the speaker feels lonely and detached from human love. Instead, he feels "the love of death," or a peaceful acceptance of his own mortality. "Rain" appeared in the collection Poems in 1917, shortly after Thomas's death at the Battle of Arras that same year.

• Read the full text of “Rain”

“Rain” Summary

• There's nothing here but stormy midnight rain, falling on my drab hut; and loneliness; and me realizing once more that I will someday die. When I die, I won't be able to hear the rain or thank it for rinsing me cleaner than I've felt since I was born into this lonely life. Dead people under the rain are fortunate—but I'm praying that no one I used to love is dying right now, or lying sleepless and alone as they listen to the rainfall. I hope they're not in pain as they listen, or feeling the same kind of helpless sympathy I do amid the living and the dead—feeling like cold water flowing among stiff, broken, motionless stalks. Or feeling, like me, that the stormy rain has washed away all love besides the love of death—if love is the right word for what you feel toward something perfect and (as the storm reminds me) unavoidable.

“Rain” Themes

• 

  The Inevitability and Relief of Death

  The speaker of "Rain," listening to rainfall while lying inside a "bleak hut," thinks about their own eventual death with matter-of-fact acceptance. The relentless rain reminds the speaker that they "shall die" but also that, once they are dead, the rain will "wash" away everything that felt impure or disappointing about their solitary life. The speaker considers the dead "Blessed" (implicitly, it seems, for having escaped the hardships of life) and claims to "love" only death. As the speaker reconciles themselves to death's inevitability, the poem suggests that the end of life can feel like a relief from pain and solitude.

  As the rain falls, the speaker immediately begins "Remembering again that I shall die." That "shall" emphasizes the fact that death is something unavoidable. Indeed, the speaker says later that death "Cannot [...] disappoint"—that it will come no matter what.

  This association between rain and death seems prompted both by the gloominess of rain and by the way rain confines the speaker to "solitude" (in that the speaker is stuck sheltering inside a "hut"), just as death will someday. The relentless rain might also suggest the relentlessness of death, and of the speaker's thoughts of death.

  Yet the speaker doesn't portray death as something negative. Instead, they present it as a relief from the sorrows of life—even a kind of perfection. With no apparent irony, the speaker says that "the dead that the rain rains upon" are "Blessed," and they expect to be "wash[ed] clean" by the rain once they're in the grave themselves. Basically, the speaker views death as purifying, a way of escaping life's loneliness and misery. Despite their feelings of "sympathy" toward other people, they claim to "have no love [...] except the love of death." They say the rain has "dissolved" their other loves, suggesting that the rain has isolated and depressed them to the point where they desire only death.

  The poem does end with a qualification, suggesting that because death, unlike human love, is "perfect" and "Cannot [...] disappoint," love might not be the right word for their feeling toward it. Still, this statement implies that their feeling is more like acceptance or peace. (It also hints that the speaker may have been too disappointed by human love to retain any attachment to it.)

  Overall, the speaker seems to welcome their eventual death as a relief from the "solitude" that they were "born into" and that they feel acutely on this rainy day.

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.
• 

  Solitude, Sympathy, and Alienation

  Written during Edward Thomas's World War I service, "Rain" expresses a mix of sympathy for and alienation from the world's suffering people. Lying in a "bleak hut" during a persistent "midnight rain," the speaker feels profoundly cut off from others. In this lonely state, the speaker thinks of everyone else the rain is falling on—both "the living and the dead." The speaker prays that none of their own (former) loved ones is dying, in pain, or feeling the same "Helpless" kind of "sympathy" they do. Yet they insist that they no longer love anyone; they only love "death." Through these statements, the poem shows how great "solitude" can produce a mix of empathy and alienation. A lonely person can keenly feel their distance from the rest of humanity, and even feel for the rest of humanity, while losing all belief in their ability to help or connect with others.

  The speaker voices "sympathy" for other suffering people, but carefully distinguishes this sympathy from "love." The speaker "pray[s]" for the well-being of others, hoping that "none whom once I loved / Is dying tonight or lying still awake / Solitary." The speaker also hopes that none of these others are "in pain or thus in sympathy / Helpless among the living and the dead." Indirectly, this indicates that the speaker feels sympathy, but also feels "Helpless" to act on that sympathy. They feel sorry for others but can't help them—and can only hope that others aren't going through the same frustration.

  In fact, the speaker claims not to love anyone anymore and suggests that their current solitude is a preparation for the total solitude of death. The phrase "none whom once I loved" suggests that love is in the past: inwardly, at least, the speaker has cut ties with everyone they cared about. The speaker insists that they feel "cold" among the "broken" people and things of earth and that they "have no love [...] except the love of death." Meanwhile, part of the appeal of "the love of death" seems to be that death, unlike other human beings, "Cannot [...] disappoint" the speaker.

  Overall, then, this lonely speaker's feelings toward other people are conflicted, even paradoxical. Their loneliness makes them think of and even "pray" for others, yet reject any closer connection as they look ahead toward death. The poem illustrates the way deep "solitude" can generate such inner conflict, leaving its sufferers alienated, perhaps hurt, yet still capable of "sympathy."

  • See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Rain”

• Lines 1-3

  Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
  On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
  Remembering again that I shall die

  The poem begins by introducing its central image—the one already previewed by the title:

  Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain [...]

  Counting the title, "Rain" is repeated four times in the poem's first nine words! The repetition helps establish the poem's atmosphere and setting. This is a very rainy night, one that makes the speaker feel lonely and somber. As the speaker (whose name, gender, age, etc. are never identified) listens to the rainfall, they think about their own inevitable death:

  On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
  Remembering again that I shall die [...]

  Because the poem reveals so little about the speaker, it's not entirely clear why their thoughts turn so quickly to death. However, the language in these opening lines suggests several possibilities. The darkness of "midnight" might remind them of the darkness of death; the "wild[ness]" of the rain might remind them of the untamed forces of nature, which eventually overcome all human lives; the "bleak[ness]" of their "hut" might remind them of the bleakness of death; their "solitude" might remind them of the loneliness of the grave. Or all of the above!

  Thomas is also known to have written this poem while living in a particular kind of "hut": a soldier's quarters in a military training camp. As an enlisted infantryman in World War I, he knew he would soon see combat in one of the bloodiest wars in human history; indeed, he died on the battlefield the following year. So while the poem never explicitly mentions war, the "bleak hut" detail offers a possible context for its somber tone. (See the Context section of this guide for more.)

  These opening lines also establish the poem's form: blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter (i.e., unrhymed five-beat lines that generally alternate unstressed and stressed syllables). This is an old and classic poetic form in English—one associated, for example, with Shakespearean drama. In fact, the poem is a bit like a Shakespearean soliloquy in some ways: it's a solitary meditation on death, love, fate, and other time-honored themes, written in a dramatic and elevated style.

  Meanwhile, its sound effects give it a richly lyrical texture: notice, for example, the short /uh/ assonance in "nothing but," the alliteration of "but" and "bleak," the internal rhyme of "but" and "hut," and the short /eh/ assonance in "Remembering again."

• Lines 4-6

  And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
  For washing me cleaner than I have been
  Since I was born into this solitude.

  

  

• Lines 7-10

  Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
  But here I pray that none whom once I loved
  Is dying tonight or lying still awake
  Solitary, listening to the rain,

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 11-14

  Either in pain or thus in sympathy
  Helpless among the living and the dead,
  Like a cold water among broken reeds,
  Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

• Lines 15-18

  Like me who have no love which this wild rain
  Has not dissolved except the love of death,
  If love it be towards what is perfect and
  Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺

“Rain” Symbols

• 

  Rain

  Besides being a literal part of the poem's setting, rain is an important symbol here. In lines 1-3, the speaker immediately links rain with death: the rain makes the speaker "Remember[] again that I shall die." Like death, a hard rain is somber, relentless, and universal (it falls on everyone, just as death comes for everyone).

  The rain also seems to symbolize misfortune and loss more generally. The speaker claims that the "wild" rain has "dissolved" all his loves and attachments, "except [for] the love of death." Symbolically, then, he associates rain with loss, including the eventual loss of his own life. More specifically, he associates it with the natural forces of time and change that cause loss. Like nature itself, the rain is vast and powerful compared to his small life; it will ultimately sweep away his life and everything it meant to him.

  Finally, the rainwater represents a kind of purification. The speaker suggests that, when the rain falls on their grave, they will owe it thanks "For washing me cleaner than I have been / Since I was born into this solitude." In this metaphor, the rain seems to baptize the dead, or to wash away their troubles as they transition from life into the afterlife.

  • See where this symbol appears in the poem.

“Rain” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  Frequent alliteration, combined with steady meter, gives the poem an intense, driving rhythm. Sometimes the alliteration occurs within a single line, as with the /l/, /h/, and /w/ sounds in line 15 and the /d/ sounds in line 16:

  Like me who have no love which this wild rain
  Has not dissolved except the love of death,

  Sometimes it flows from one line into the next, as with the /l/ and /s/ sounds in lines 9-10:

  Is dying tonight or lying still awake
  Solitary, listening to the rain,

  A related effect comes from the simple repetition of certain words, such as "Rain" in line 1:

  Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain [...]

  The repetition of consonant sounds (and whole words) evokes the driving, repetitive sound of the rain itself. Alliteration also helps highlight some of the poem's most thematically important words in the poem, such as "solitude" in line 6 ("Since I was born into this solitude"), "love" in line 15 ("Like me who have no love"), and "death" in line 16 ("Has not dissolved except the love of death"). This is a poem about solitude, love (or detachment from love), and the anticipation of death, so it's fitting that the poem's sound effects bring these words to the fore.

  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Assonance

  

  
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Repetition

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Enjambment

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

• Simile

  

  

  Unlock with LitCharts A⁺
  • See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

"Rain" Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Hut
• Reeds
• Myriads
• Dissolved
• Tempest

• A small, simple shelter. Here, the word may refer to a structure in a military barracks, such as a Nissen hut.

  • See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Rain”

• Form

  The poem consists of a single unbroken stanza, which is made up of just two sentences. Its lines are written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, also known as blank verse. That is, they generally follow a five-beat rhythm that alternates unstressed with stressed syllables: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.

  Combined with the regular meter, the long, winding, rhythmic sentences have an almost hypnotic effect, much like the steady "Rain" the speaker describes. The first sentence (lines 1-6) is actually a sentence fragment; its lack of a main verb reflects the speaker's stillness as they listen to the storm outside.

  The lines sound all the more lulling—and perhaps more dreary—because they're not varied or punctuated by rhyme. The absence of a rhyme scheme might also reflect the messy "wild[ness]" of the rain (lines 1 and 15), and the way it seems to have "dissolved" all the loves and attachments that once structured the speaker's life.

  Finally, blank verse is a very old, traditional form in English-language poetry. Big-name poets such as William Shakespeare, John Milton, and William Wordsworth all used it in much of their work. As an extended first-person meditation in blank verse, touching on themes of love and death, "Rain" might even be modeled on the Shakespearean soliloquy. (The last line's reference to "the tempest"—the title of one of Shakespeare's plays—could be a clue that the poet had Shakespeare on the brain.)

• Meter

  "Rain" is written in iambic pentameter, which means that its lines typically alternate unstressed with stressed syllables in a five-beat rhythm (da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM | da-DUM). Like most metrical poems, however, this one contains occasional variations. For example, line 1 is much rhythmically rougher than lines 2-4:

  Rain, mid- | night rain, | nothing | but the | wild rain
  On this | bleak hut, | and sol- | itude, | and me
  Remem- | bering | again | that I | shall die
  And nei- | ther hear | the rain | nor give | it thanks [...]

  Notice how the uneven stresses in line 1 repeatedly fall on the central word in the poem: "Rain"! The line emphasizes this word three times, as if to underscore just how rainy the weather is. It also emphasizes the word "but," driving home the fact that the weather is nothing but rain. By contrast, the next three lines follow the iambic pentameter pattern more or less perfectly, evoking the rain's steady, monotonous hammering.

  The poem continues in this same general fashion, maintaining a consistent rhythm overall but switching it up here and there for emphasis. Another notable variation comes with the three consecutive stressed syllables at the end of line 15: "this wild rain." ("Wild" counts as a single syllable for metrical purposes.) Here, the sudden rhythmic variation and intensity reflect the intensity of the rainstorm itself.

• Rhyme Scheme

  "Rain" has no rhyme scheme. It's written in unrhymed iambic pentameter, or blank verse. (See Meter section for more context.) Blank verse is generally considered a flexible form, one that's easy to adapt to the rhythms of colloquial English. It's no accident that Shakespeare used blank verse as the backbone of his plays: it can sound "poetic" and "conversational" at the same time.

  "Rain" has a similar effect. The meter gives it a stately, driving rhythm, but the lack of rhyme makes the language sound relatively spontaneous and natural. Lines 1-2, for instance, sound as if the speaker's just thinking aloud:

  Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
  On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me [...]

  Of course, some phrases sound a little less conversational and a little more lyrical ("But here I pray that none whom once I loved," etc.). Still, the unrhymed lines help capture the natural, meandering flow of the speaker's thoughts.

“Rain” Speaker

• The poem provides very little information about its first-person speaker. Their name, age, gender, etc. is never specified. They are presented as an ordinary person doing something ordinary: lying awake at night and listening to a rainstorm. Their "solitude" and supposed lack of close attachments ("Like me who have no love") makes their personal circumstances hard to determine.

  The "bleak hut" they're staying in (line 2), as well as their preoccupation with "death" (line 16), may be clues to their situation. Thomas wrote "Rain" during his military training in World War I, so the speaker has been read as a version of the poet, contemplating the deaths of others during the war and confronting the reality that he, too, "shall die." (Thomas died in combat the following year.) If that reading is correct, the "hut" would be a shelter in a military barracks—like hut 51 at Hare Hall camp in Romford, England, where Thomas lived during his training.

  However, nothing in the poem necessitates this reading. The speaker never directly refers to war, and they could be living or staying in some other type of "hut." The lack of specificity makes the voice more universally relatable. Soldiers or not, most people, at some point, listen to the rain in a somber mood!

“Rain” Setting

• The setting of the poem is a "bleak hut," where the "Solitary" speaker is lying awake at night during a "wild rain[storm]." The type of "hut" isn't specified, but it's most likely a shelter in a military barracks. Thomas wrote the poem while training to serve in World War I, during which time he bunked in hut 51 at the Hare Hall training camp in Romford, England (now part of London).

  Likewise, the poem's references to "the dead" (lines 7 and 12) never directly mention war, but were undoubtedly inspired, at least in part, by the war raging at the time. The speaker may be thinking of dead soldiers on the WWI battlefields, many of whom were left unburied out in the elements for a time (i.e., exposed to "the rain"). In fact, "Rain" is often read as a World War I poem in all but name. However, its setting and situation are vague enough that it has a timeless, universal quality as well.

Literary and Historical Context of “Rain”

• Literary Context

  Despite his obscurity during his lifetime, Edward Thomas (1878–1917) is now considered one of the most talented English poets of the early 20th century, and one of the most distinguished writers whose careers were cut short by World War I. Thomas lived to see only one slim volume of his poems published (Six Poems, 1916). His second collection, called simply Poems (1917), was nearing publication when he died in combat. "Rain" is among the poems gathered in this second book, and it's often read as an indirect statement on the bloodshed of the war, as well as an eerie foreshadowing of the poet's own early death. (However, the poem doesn't explicitly mention war, and the speaker's "love of death" hints at other aspects of the poet's biography: for example, Thomas survived multiple suicide attempts.)

  Though he didn't gain literary fame in life, Thomas formed a now-famous friendship with the American poet Robert Frost, who lived in England from 1912 to 1915. The friendship was important to both men's development as writers, and Frost—who lived to become the best-known American poet of his time—went on to elegize Thomas in the poem "To E.T." (Frost's classic poem "The Road Not Taken" also grew out of this friendship; it was in part a joke about Thomas's indecisiveness, one that Thomas didn't find especially funny.) Frost once called Thomas "the only brother I ever had," and he arranged for the first U.S. publication of Thomas's poetry.

  The two men were part of a literary circle called the Dymock poets, which also included the famous WWI poet Rubert Brooke (author of "The Soldier"). The group dissolved after Frost returned to America and Brooke and Thomas died in the war—Brooke due to illness, and Thomas on the battlefield.

  In writing "Rain," Thomas drew on one of his earlier prose sketches: a description of heavy rain that originated in his notebooks and later appeared in his travel book The Icknield Way (1913). Although the poem is written in highly traditional blank verse, its imagery seems to echo or anticipate some of the experimental "modernist" literature of the same period. For example, "rain," "broken[ness]," and somber landscapes feature prominently in T. S. Eliot's era-defining poem "The Waste Land" (1922), an indirect poetic response to World War I.

  Historical Context

  Thomas wrote "Rain" at the height of World War I (1914-1918), which marked the beginning of modern, mechanized warfare and remains one of the deadliest conflicts in world history. Between 15 and 24 million people died in the war, whether from combat, disease, or other causes. The brutal trench warfare that dominated the conflict sometimes left corpses exposed for long stretches before they could be buried properly. Thus, in contemplating "the dead that the rain rains upon" (line 7), the speaker might well be imagining dead soldiers in the open elements, not just corpses in graveyards.

  Written in hut 51 of the Hare Hall military training camp in England (the likely inspiration for the "hut" in line 2), "Rain" contemplates a world full of "broken[ness]" and "death." Though it doesn't mention the war explicitly, its grim imagery seems inspired, at least in part, by the mass slaughter of the period. If the speaker is read as a stand-in for the poet, their "love" and anticipation of "death" may be a premonition of death on the bloody WWI battlefields.

  In fact, Thomas did die in combat; he fell at the Battle of Arras on April 9, 1917, not long before the release of the book that featured "Rain."

More “Rain” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "Rain."

  • The Poet's Life and Work — Read a biography of Thomas at the Poetry Foundation.

  • More on Thomas and "Rain" — The Poetry Archive's biography of Thomas, including context on the writing of "Rain."

  • Rain in "The Icknield Way" — Read a prose description of heavy rain in Thomas's 1911 "The Icknield Way," which Thomas is thought to have drawn on in writing the poem.

  • Edward Thomas Remembered — A 1967 interview with Thomas's widow, Helen, about her recollections of the poet.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Edward Thomas

  • Adlestrop