There Will Come Soft Rains

	There Will Come Soft Rains was written by Sara Teasdale as part of 

one of her works, Collected Poems.  It is a lyrical poem that deals with the 

subsistence of mankind and nature together.  It also deals with the serene 

beauty and existence of nature itself.  Throughout the poem, Sara Teasdale 

emphasizes the existence of mankind and nature in two different worlds, yet 

the two worlds are also still one in the same.   

	There Will Come Soft Rains has both a literal and figurative meaning.  

The first three stanzas have literal meaning.  They describe nature and its 

existence in relation to mankind.  The last three stanzas have figurative 

meaning.  They describe the individuality of nature by accentuating the 

separation of both worlds and indicating that their world would remain 

unaltered without the existence of mankind.    

	The first stanza involves the peaceful clashing of both worlds.  Soft 

rains symbolize a silent war that constantly rages, yet causes no harm.  The 

second stanza describes nature in its natural habitat.  The frogs represent all 

of nature and the pools represent their natural environment.  The third stanza 

again represents the peaceful coexistence of both worlds.  The fence wire 

represents mankind, and the robins represent nature.   

	The last three stanzas of the poem figuratively depict the war between 

nature and mankind.  Sara Teasdale focuses on nature and their unchanged 

existence without man.  These last three stanzas serve to further illustrate the 

separation of both worlds.  The fifth stanza creates the image of a world 

without man.  The sixth stanza demonstrates the reaction of nature to being 

alone in the world.  Sara Teasdale uses Spring to represent nature, and her 

reaction symbolizes the thoughts and ideas of nature as a whole.                

	Sara Teasdale uses rhyme at the end of each verse of this poem.  

Rhyme is the repetition of words or syllables with similar sounds.  In There 

Will Come Soft Rains, the last words of each stanza rhyme.  She also uses 

imagery in this poem.  Imagery is a technique in which writers convey many 

messages with few words by creating mental pictures for the reader and 

combining them all at once.  Sara Teasdale uses sound to create images in 

this poem.  The sounds of the frogs and the robins convey the calmness of the 

setting.  The world is placid, and the only sounds are the harmonious songs of 

nature.     

	The theme of There Will come Soft Rains is peace.  The theme also has 

both literal and figurative meanings.  Nature and Mankind both literally exist 

in the same world, but figuratively, their worlds are utterly different.  These 

two worlds are able to survive peacefully with only one common bond, the 

world they share.  The silent war rages on, but it is not a war of violence.  

Two totally opposite worlds have learned to coexist with each other, for they 

realize that they both are one in the same.