There Will Come Soft Rain Personification

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There Will Come Soft Rains Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” imagines a world where human extinction occurs due to warfare. In this future world, nature reclaims the earth after the humans have finished their fighting. Life goes on and nature does not remember that mankind was ever there. The future world in the poem is reborn and moves on without mankind. Teasdale’s poem “There Will Come Soft Rains” uses imagery, personification, and alliteration to illustrate the theme of the senseless destruction of war. Teasdale uses imagery to depict the senselessness of war. Teasdale describes a tranquil point in the future where “soft rains” will come and bring out the earthy scent from the ground (61). The rain will rejuvenate …show more content…

Teasdale states that the robins will don “their feathery fire” (61). The fire in this case is the soft, delicate feathers of a bird and not the horrific fires of warfare. The descriptive images of nature are soothing and serene. The pleasant, gentle imagery evokes feelings of peace and tranquility in this future world showing that the earth is, once again, at peace when mankind has disappeared. Personification is used throughout the poem to show the pointlessness of war. Teasdale personifies many elements of nature throughout the poem to depict the detachment of humans from the natural world. For example, Teasdale describes the frogs as, “singing at night” in order to portray nature’s indifference toward mankind and their violent wars (61). Teasdale states that the robins, “will wear their feathery fire” (61). This personification …show more content…

Teasdale uses alliteration to create a sense of harmony and peace in her descriptions of nature. Teasdale describes how, once the war is over and mankind is gone, the rain will cleanse the earth. The repetition of the “s” sound in the first two lines creates a feeling of calm and peace, “There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, / And swallows circling with their shimmering sound” (Teasdale 61). Teasdale uses alliteration in her vivid picture of the robins and how they will be, “Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire” (61). This alliteration adds to the gentility of the world without humankind and shows how carefree nature is without the interference of man. The alliteration gives the poem a musical quality that contributes to the feelings of peace and serenity, however, the subsequent lines of the poem that focus on mankind’s extinction do not employ alliteration at all and this shows that humans disrupt the harmony and flow of nature (Teasdale 61). Without humankind, the world resumes its natural flow as if nothing had

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