Voice Of The Rain- Summary in simple language | Questions- Answers

Table of Contents

Voice Of The Rain – Summary With Expected Question-Answers | Class 11 | CBSE | AHSEC

About the Poem

The poem ‘The Voice of the Rain’ by Walt Whitman signifies the eternal role that the rain plays play in nurturing, quenching and purifying the various elements of the Earth.

The rain returns the favour to its place of origin from where it rises unseen from the depths of the water and from the land. The rain itself is explaining to the reader about its origin, work and its cyclic movement. A comparison has also been drawn between rain and music as both of them make the world more lively and return to their place of origin after fulfilling their purpose.

Stanza-wise Explanation Of The Poem

Stanza -I Explanation

The poem starts with the poet asking for the identity of the soft-falling rain shower. Much to the surprise of the poet, the rain replies to his question which the poet translates for his readers. The rain in its own voice tells the poet that she is the poem of this Earth. The rain is trying to say that, as music or poetry gives pleasure to human beings, the rain gives happiness to mother Earth.

Stanza -II Explanation

The poet says that the rain is an eternal process, but it takes different forms at different times. It rises from the land and the deep sea in the form of intangible water vapour and goes up to the sky. There it takes an indistinct shape in the form of clouds.

Although it changes in its form or shape, its core matter remains the same. Since vapour and clouds contain water they can get transformed into the other. The words ‘impalpable’ and ‘eternal’ indicate that nature is not fully understood and some part of it always remains beyond our reach.

Stanza -III Explanation

The raindrops pour down from above to wash away droughts and dust layers enveloping Earth. It satisfies the thirst of the dry Earth and heals everything that is degrading and is lying lifeless. The showers remove the duets particles and make Earth clean and green.

The rain also helps in the germination of seeds which were lying dormant due to a dry spell.

Stanza -IV Explanation

The rain is involved in a continued process of giving life on Earth by providing water to dormant seeds and making the Earth more beautiful and full of greenery. Rain helps in enhancing the beauty of Earth as, in the absence of water, everything turns dull or lifeless and dust accumulated everywhere.

The last two lines are the poet’s own words and his reflections upon the answers given by the rain. The poet observes that the life of rain is similar to life of a song. A song or poem is creativity at its best. It has the power to calm, heal, rejuvenate, transform and thrill. In the same way, repeated evaporation and condensation purifies the rain. The entire environment gets drenched in the rain, dust particles settle down and there is greenery everywhere which makes the whole Earth beautiful to look at. The poet, therefore, draws a parallel between rain and music as both have rhythm and ability to thrill. Both of them rejuvenate and beautify life.

Question-Answers

1. What question does the poet put to the rain and how does he feel when he gets the answer?

Ans. While observing the lightly falling showers, the poet got fascinated and asks who it is. Strongly enough, the rain herself answers the question posed to her. The poet was amazed to get an answer and translates the answer into his own language.

2. What answer does the rain give to the poet regarding herself?

Ans. When the poet asks the rain who she is. The rain, quite strongly, answers the question that she is the poem of the earth. She raises out the land and bottomless sea upward to the sky.

There within the sky, she takes its birth or shape in a vague form.

Though the form is completely changed, yet she remains the same.

3. What happens when the rain descends in the form of showers?
                                              Or
What does rain do day and night?

Ans. The rain proves a blessing for the earth. When the showers of rain fall down on earth, they wash away all the droughts, dust and other impurities of the earth. The seeds lying hidden in the earth suddenly sprout to life when it rains. So the rain gives a new lease of life to the earth.

4. Describe the never -ending cycle of the rain.
                              Or
How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem, “Voice of the Rain”
Ans. The rain goes on completing a fixed cycle day in and day out. She rises in the form of water vapours out of the land and the bottomless sea. She rises towards the sky where when she cools down she takes the shape of showers. The showers fall back to the place of its origin-the earth. Hence, the cycle is complete.

5. What will happen if it doesn’t rain?

Ans. The rain gives a new lease of life to the earth. When she comes to the place of her origin, the earth comes to life once again. Without the showers of rain, all seeds lying hidden in the earth will not sprout and keep on lying inside as seeds. The showers of rain bring a new life on the earth. They cause the seeds to sprout into saplings and wash down all the dust and impurities of the earth.

6. How does the rain become the voice of the earth?
                                       Or
Why is the rain so essential on the earth?

Ans. Walt Whitman calls the showers of rain as ‘the poem of the earth.’ Rainy season gives a new lease of life to the scorched and parched earth. The rain makes the seeds sprout in the form of saplings. Rain makes the earth pure and beautifies it. Actually, it is the voice or the song of the planet earth. The earth finds its expression only through the showers of the rain.

7. Justify the title ‘The Voice of the Rain’.

Ans. The title of the poem is appropriate, just and logical. The cycle of rain is a natural phenomenon. Actually, the rain rises out of the earth and the bottomless sea in the form of water vapours.

In the sky, they take the form of the rain.

The light and soft music of the falling rain is actually the song of the earth itself. After wandering from the earth to the sky, it comes back to the place of its origin, the earth.

8. What is the strange for the poet to tell and why?

Ans. When the poet questioned the rain who it was, it answers that it is the poem of the earth. The answer that the rain itself gives to the poet is quite strange to tell. According to the poet it was strange to tell because he never expected from such a natural object to understand human language and to answer in their own way.

9. What happens when the rain descends in the form of a shower?

Ans. When the rain descends in the form of a shower they wash away all droughts, dust and other impurities of the earth. It gives life to the seeds lying hidden in the earth.

10. Why does the rain describe itself as the poem of the earth?

Ans. The rain describes itself as the poem of the earth as it is eternal having no end and no limit of life. The rain makes the seeds sprout in the form of a sapling . Rain makes the earth pure and beautify. It is the harbinger of life and beauty on earth, so it is termed as the poem of the earth.

11. From where does the rain rise eternally?

Ans. Due to evaporation, water vapours rise out of the land and the bottomless sea upwards. They cool down as raindrops.