Summary of The Voice of the Rain
The Voice of the Rain is a poem written by American poet Walt Whitman. This poem is an account of the poet’s experience with rain. He has personified rain by giving it the attributes of a person who can eloquently explain their inner thoughts and feelings. The rain calls itself a ‘Poem of Earth’. It talks about its role on earth by portraying how it helps the various life forms on it thrive. It describes its mechanism as similar to that of a song that travels across space and time to return to its origin with love from its singers and listeners. The Voice of the Rain Class 11 Summary can be found in BYJU’S CBSE Summary. Students can also refer to CBSE Notes for preparation on various topics like writing and grammar related to the Class 11 CBSE English syllabus.
CBSE Class 11 English The Voice of the Rain Summary
The poet talks to a soft shower – the rain, asking it about its identity, and the rain, strangely, seemed to reply to his query. It replies that it is a ‘Poem of Earth’. It describes its identity through poetic lines that capture the beauty of its idea of a being – a being that explains how the earth functions with its help.
It appears incorporeal to humans and other life forms as it travels from the land and the deep sea towards heaven. Here, ‘heaven’ is nothing but a metaphor for the sky. Since the sky looks peaceful and denotes endless possibilities of an outer world, people generally consider heaven to be in a direction towards the sky. After this travel to heaven in an incorporeal form, the rain takes a different form. It is vague in nature – it looks different, but its core changed. It is the same rain as before – the ‘Poem of Earth’.
The rain descends down to the earth from the skies and washes the droughts, tiny particles and dust that accumulates over things in the absence of rain. This bountiful pouring of water by the rain leads to the creation of life. The rain explains that before it poured upon the earth, all kinds of life – small and big – were like seeds with the potential to give birth waiting for the optimum conditions.
The rain continuously repeats this process of travelling back to heaven after it nourishes the earth with water. This cycle never stops, and the rain calls itself a creator of its own origin. It adds beauty and purity to itself by repeating this process. There is no stop to this event, and it will continue forever.
The rain compares its process of continuous regeneration to the way a song returns to its origin. A song originates at a particular place but spreads worldwide through its singers and listeners. Bits and pieces of the lyrics and tones might change in due course of its journey, but it retains its identity all the same. It returns to its origin in the form of love and appreciation received from listeners worldwide. The journey of the rain on earth resembles this phenomenon closely.
Conclusion of The Voice of the Rain
The Voice of the Rain Class 11 Summary is a reminder of the perpetual progression of life. Life never stops, and we must embrace its journey with all the good and bad moments associated with it – just like it happens with a song. A song might have certain parts of it altered and modified, but it comes back to its place of origin as the same song that was initially created. The rain carries on its duty as a reliever of the earth with its activities; it goes through a long process of travelling to and from the earth in different forms, but it does not lose its identity at all.
A detailed understanding of the poem can help students critically analyse and appreciate the poem. Students can refer to our website for further information and content related to the Class 11 English subject for better understanding and preparation for CBSE board exams. They can also access topics like grammar and writing in English.
