The Full Text of “The Voice of the Rain”
1And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
2Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
3I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
4Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
5Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed,
6 and yet the same,
7I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
8And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
9And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own
10 origin, and make pure and beautify it;
11(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
12Reck'd or unreck'd. duly with love returns.)
The Full Text of “The Voice of the Rain”
1And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
2Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
3I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
4Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
5Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed,
6 and yet the same,
7I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
8And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
9And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own
10 origin, and make pure and beautify it;
11(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
12Reck'd or unreck'd. duly with love returns.)
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“The Voice of the Rain” Introduction
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"The Voice of the Rain" is a short free-verse poem by the American poet Walt Whitman. Originally published in a periodical called Outing in 1885, it was later reprinted in Leaves of Grass, Whitman's most celebrated collection of verse. In "The Voice of the Rain," the speaker listens to the personified figure of the rain liken itself to poetry. Describing each stage of the water cycle, the poem pays homage to the restorative power of the natural world and claims that poetry nourishes humanity just as rain nourishes the earth.
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“The Voice of the Rain” Summary
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"Who are you?" I asked the light rain, which, oddly enough, replied with the following: "I am the Poem of Earth," the rain said. "In an everlasting cycle, I rise as vapor from the land and sea to the sky. From there, while in the form of a cloud, both different and the same from what I was before, I fall to wash away the Earth's drought and fill every part of it with water. Without me, everything on Earth was like a seed that couldn't grow. Forever, throughout day and night, I replenish the places I come from, making them beautiful and clean (just as songs, well after being written, eventually return lovingly to the places or people they came from, regardless of whether they were heard or appreciated).
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“The Voice of the Rain” Themes
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The Nourishing Nature of Poetry
In Walt Whitman’s "The Voice of the Rain," the personified figure of the rain compares itself to poetry. In describing its own cyclical nature, the rain also illuminates the essential characteristics of poetry. The rain thereby functions as an extended metaphor for poetry itself, asserting that poetry not only shares a rain-like life cycle, but is also vital and nourishing for the world.
In response to the speaker’s question "Who art thou?", the rain identifies itself as "the Poem of Earth," establishing the rest of the poem as an extended metaphor. The rain then describes the three stages of its life cycle, the first being evaporation: "Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea." The rain has not yet taken physical form, much like the initial thoughts behind a poem exist before taking shape on a page. This line may also refer to the poetic tradition of drawing inspiration from the natural world, as though a poem is rising from nature itself (the “land” and “sea”).
The next stage is condensation: “Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form’d, altogether changed, and yet the same.” The rain is now a cloud, which corresponds to the poet’s initial composition of a poem, when their ideas come together to form a visible work.
The final stage is precipitation, the point at which the rain at last falls to the Earth: “I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe.” Here, the rain is crucial to the world's health and survival, nourishing it after drought. Continuing the extended metaphor, the poem makes it clear that poetry shares this vital role, replenishing humanity with life just as rain replenishes the Earth.
Towards the end of the poem, the rain again highlights its role as a life-sustaining force, claiming that poetry is just as essential. The rain explains how seeds would remain “seeds only, latent, unborn” without its help, and how it gives back life to its “own origin;” that is, it evaporates from one place and later returns water to the same place. Similarly, poetry brings inspiration to readers, who may be inspired to write their own poems and thus continue the creative cycle. The rain’s mention of unborn seeds also situates poetry as a life source, suggesting that humans need poetry to grow, just like seeds need rain.
The final two lines draw another direct link between poetry and rain: “For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfillment, wandering, / Reck’d or unreck’d, duly with love returns.” Like rain, poetry (“song”) rises from a point of origin, wanders (perhaps like a cloud) as it assumes a form, and then returns to its creator with love, regardless of whether it was noticed or appreciated (“reck’d or unreck’d”).
The word “love” further enriches the connection that the poem draws between poetry and rain. Until this point, the rain described its life cycle as natural and perhaps unavoidable, but here it seems instead like an act of love. The rain’s personification was already clear from the poem’s onset, and yet the rain now seems like a more complex, soulful being, for it is capable of loving the Earth on which it falls (and from which it rises). This characteristic is perhaps made more beautiful by the fact that the speaker is standing directly in the rain (amidst a “soft-falling shower”) while the rain is speaking. The speaker perceives directly that poetry, like rain, is an act of love on the part of the Earth, sustaining and enriching its occupants just as rain sustains the land.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Voice of the Rain”
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Lines 1-2
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:The poem opens with an instance of apostrophe, albeit an unconventional one. Apostrophes are typically addressed to imagined presences, or things or people not actually present. However, as even the speaker seems a bit surprised to discover, the rain responds to the speaker's question: "And who art thou?" It's unclear, then, whether the speaker expected an answer to the opening question or if the speaker asks it in more of a musing manner, as if simply thinking aloud. Either way, the encounter is decidedly "strange to tell" from the speaker's point of view. The speaker, like the reader, seems not to know yet what to make of hearing the rain speak.
Intriguingly, the speaker also notes that the rain's speech is "translated," but does not actually reveal what kind of language the rain uses to communicate with the speaker. Perhaps the "soft-falling shower" or the rhythm of falling droplets is itself the "voice of the rain," or maybe it is something else—the speaker's imagination, perhaps. It is important, in any case, that the reader does not genuinely hear the rain speak in this poem, for every word is translated through the speaker. This connection between the speaker and the rain seems almost intimate: meeting the speaker in the gentle form of a "soft-falling" shower, the rain eventually describes itself as an act of "love" on the part of the Earth and its occupants.
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Line 3
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
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Lines 4-6
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, -
Lines 7-8
I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn; -
Lines 9-10
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own
origin, and make pure and beautify it; -
Lines 11-12
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering,
Reck'd or unreck'd. duly with love returns.)
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“The Voice of the Rain” Symbols
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Rain
Although this poem, through extended metaphor, makes explicit that the "rain" is "the Poem of Earth," we can consider the "rain" to be a symbol for actual poetry itself. Each time the rain describes itself, it is also describing poetry. For example, when the rain says that it descends "to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe," it is referring to the cleansing and nourishing power of poetry upon humankind. Without itself (and therefore, without poetry), the rain says, people on Earth are but "seeds only" and cannot grow. The ending of the poem also makes the symbol explicit by referencing "song," which is just another kind of poetry. After "song" leaves its "birth-place," it returns to its song-writer with "love," just as rain returns with love to hydrate and revitalize the Earth.
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“The Voice of the Rain” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
This poem is rooted in apostrophe, which occurs when the speaker addresses the rain directly. This isn't a traditional apostrophe, however, because the imagined entity being addressed actually does respond. The speaker even admits that the encounter was "strange to tell"; perhaps these words demonstrate the speaker's own surprise that the rain does indeed answer. What's more, the question being asked ("And who art thou?") is itself slightly strange because it immediately personifies the rain (the rain is a "who," not a "what"). This unique combination of personification and apostrophe shapes the structure of the rest of the poem, as it nests the voice of one speaker (the rain) within the voice of another (the original speaker who asks the question).
The word "translated" complicates this apostrophe, however, because we do not know if the speaker really understood the rain as it was speaking. "Translated" of course could be more in line with "transcribed," indicating that the speaker is simply relaying the exact words the rain said, but it could also mean that the rain's speech was not originally comprehensible and had to be translated into English by the speaker. If the latter is true, then it might be that the apostrophe is actually being used in the traditional sense, because the speaker could be imagining a "translation" of what the rain seems to say, rather than claiming that the rain literally did respond to the speaker's question.
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Asyndeton
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Imagery
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Extended Metaphor
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End-Stopped Line
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Personification
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Caesura
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Assonance
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"The Voice of the 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.
- Thou
- Impalpable
- Whence
- Lave
- Drouths
- Atomies
- Dust-layers
- Latent
- Beautify
- Issuing
- Rek'd or unreck'd
- Duly
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Thou is an archaic form of "you."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Voice of the Rain”
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Form
This poem's form, like most of Whitman's poetry, is free verse. In other words, it does not follow any particular stanza or line structure, rhyme scheme, or meter.
While there could be a multitude of reasons that a poet might choose to write in free verse, free verse seems especially fitting for this poem given that the poem is mostly told not by a human being, but by "the voice of the rain." The rain, being an ever-fluctuating part of the natural world, is unbounded, falling wherever the wind sweeps it. The poem even references the "wandering" nature of both poetry and rain, so it makes sense that the form of the poem would be similarly wandering and free-flowing.
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Meter
Although this poem does not have a formal meter, as is typical of free verse, it does have a particular kind of cadence that comes from its mixture of asyndeton and end-stopped lines.
For example, lines 5-6 split up many of their descriptors with commas instead of using conjunctions, and so these lines read in a lilting manner, as though even the rain itself is not sure when it will end the sentence. At times, just when it seems that a complete description or idea is coming to a close, the poem continues with the word "And..." in the following line (for example, in lines 8 and 9), continuing its free-flowing feel. The commas and colons at the ends of each line separating the poem's thoughts somewhat, but there is no period until the poem ends. Every thought is therefore connected and flows in a steady rhythm that feels almost like a meter.
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Rhyme Scheme
This free-verse poem does not have a formal rhyme scheme, but it does have some slant rhyme (mostly in the form of assonance) that comes up as both end rhyme and internal rhyme.
For example, "shower" and "answer" in the first two lines share slant internal rhyme with the /er/ sound, and "answer" and "translated" are connected in a similar way, with assonance on the long /a/ sound. "Rain," "changed," and "same," have assonant slant rhymes at the ends of lines 3, 5 and 6, as do "globe" and "own" with the long /o/ sound. "Unborn" and "origin" also share this /o/ sound, though they are not technically slant rhymes because this assonance is not in the final syllable of both words.
While not frequent enough to create a consistent rhyme scheme, these less obvious forms of rhyme create a pleasant, melodious feel throughout the poem—which perhaps reflects the "soft-falling shower" in line 1.
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“The Voice of the Rain” Speaker
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There seem to be two speakers in this poem, although you could also argue that there is technically only one, since the rain's speech is "translated" through the voice of the first speaker. The first speaker is the "I" in line 1, who asks of the rain: "And who art thou?" The only other detail we know about this speaker is that the speaker found the rain's speech "strange to tell" about, which suggests that the speaker wasn't expecting it to respond to the initial question. Although only the first two lines of the poem are clearly in this speaker's voice, this speaker also notes that the rain's words are "translated," which may mean that the rain's "voice" is actually something this first speaker imagined or embellished, rather than a literal voice that the speaker heard. Accordingly, it may be that the seeming second speaker who narrates the rest of the poem is really still this first speaker all along.
Either way, the main speaker is the rain, who takes on a personified form throughout the poem, using its "voice" to speak. The rain speaks gently and uninterruptedly (using only one flowing sentence), perhaps reflecting the way it descends in a "soft-falling shower." Importantly, it also speaks with confidence, saying that without it, the Earth's contents are "seeds only, latent, unborn." Words like these give the rain an experienced, wise tone, which makes sense given that it is just as old as the Earth it replenishes.
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“The Voice of the Rain” Setting
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The poem is set in two places. The first is wherever the speaker is while standing amidst the "soft-falling shower," which speaks back to them in "the voice of the rain."
The second setting is the entire Earth. Even though the poem describes an encounter between two beings (which would have to occur in one, specific location), this encounter includes a wide-ranging discussing of the whole planet, and even of the skies and atmosphere surrounding it ("heaven"). The rain spends the majority of the poem describing its water cycle, which occurs over land, sea, and sky; thus the poem's setting cannot be confined to an exact location, given the rain's widespread presence.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Voice of the Rain”
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Literary Context
Although "The Voice of the Rain" lacks the political and social commentary that pervades much of Walt Whitman's work, it nevertheless has characteristics of his style and poetic voice. The poem is written in free verse and is in the first-person (even though it is mostly the rain that this first-person perspective belongs to), both of which Whitman relied on extensively throughout his work. These techniques, as well as a passion for democracy and social progressivism, are major parts of the collection Leaves of Grass, in which this poem was eventually published. Leaves of Grass is Whitman’s major collection of poetry that he continually revised and added on to until his death.
Other writers during Whitman’s time, particularly Oscar Wilde, found Whitman’s passion for democracy and freedom of expression appealing, so much so that the two met in America. Later on in the 20th-century, famous novelist Jack Kerouac and poet Gary Snyder would be influenced by these democratic ideals, as well as Whitman’s reverence for the natural world, in producing their own work. Today, Whitman is heralded as one of the most “American” poets for his focus on democracy and freedom of expression, both in poetic form and content. Ezra Pound, a modernist poet of the early 20th-century, even went so far as to say that Whitman “is America.”
Historical Context
Walt Whitman lived in 19th-century America and was affected by the politics surrounding the Civil War, as well as by the Industrial Revolution and the expansion of cities. Although "The Voice of the Rain" does not outwardly seem to connect to a particular historical time period, it nevertheless conveys the democratic ideals that were a crucial part of Whitman's worldview. Whitman championed democracy and equality during a time of slavery, and while this poem may not be about slavery specifically, it is nevertheless "democratic" in that it makes a case for valuing the entirety of the Earth and all its occupants. Whitman placed great importance on the right to freely express oneself (one reason for his preference for writing in free verse) and believed that everyone should be able to do so. In this poem, he takes his democratic ideals to a kind of extreme: even the rain gets a chance to speak and express itself.
This poem can also be read as a kind of ode to the beauty and authority of the natural world, which may have been a response to the growing development of urban centers and industry in America. Overall, the 19th century was an identity crisis of sorts for the United States (which was of course not "united" for much of this time period), a reality that provided artists the challenge of capturing the nation's shifting and embattled spirit. This poem hints at both Whitman's concern over industrial progress and his belief in the value of human rights and freedoms.
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More “The Voice of the Rain” Resources
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External Resources
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Leaves of Grass (audio) — A full audio recording of Whitman's Leaves of Grass, read by multiple performers.
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Walt Whitman Page (Academy of American Poets) — The Academy of American Poets website has information about Whitman's biography and notable works.
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Walt Whitman Museum — Walt Whitman's birthplace in Huntington Station, NY is now a museum that you can visit.
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The Science of the Water Cycle — NASA's education website describes the water cycle in detail, providing scientific context for the rain's description of its life cycle.
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The Walt Whitman Archive — This digital archive contains copies of Whitman's original works, including letters and other hand-written documents, as well as biographical information, portraits, photos, and literary criticism.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Walt Whitman
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