MADHU MALTI

An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow : Les Murray : : Rainbow Poems : :

**Folouful lit facades of historic buildings on George street in the Rocks suburb of Sydney city under the Sydney Harbour bridge during vivid Sydney light festival – bright lights everywhere.**

**George Street , Sydney , Australia : Walking people**

**Bustling George Street Sydney Australia: Pedestrians**

**Street Sign : George Street Sydney , New South Wales Australia**

The word goes round Repins,
the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
at Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
the Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
and men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There’s a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can’t stop him.

The traffic in George Street is banked up for half a mile
and drained of motion. The crowds are edgy with talk
and more crowds come hurrying. Many run in the back streets
which minutes ago were busy main streets, pointing:
There’s a fellow weeping down there. No one can stop him.

The man we surround, the man no one approaches
simply weeps, and does not cover it, weeps
not like a child, not like the wind, like a man
and does not declaim it, nor beat his breast, nor even
sob very loudly – yet the dignity of his weeping

holds us back from his space, the hollow he makes about him
in the midday light, in his pentagram of sorrow,
and uniforms back in the crowd who tried to seize him
stare out at him, and feel, with amazement, their minds
longing for tears as children for a rainbow.

Some will say, in the years to come, a halo
or force stood around him. There is no such thing.
Some will say they were shocked and would have stopped him
but they will not have been there. The fiercest manhood,
the toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us

trembles with silence, and burns with unexpected
judgements of peace. Some in the concourse scream
who thought themselves happy. Only the smallest children
and such as look out of Paradise come near him
and sit at his feet, with dogs and dusty pigeons.

Ridiculous, says a man near me, and stops
his mouth with his hands, as if it uttered vomit –
and I see a woman, shining, stretch her hand
and shake as she receives the gift of weeping;
as many as follow her also receive it

and many weep for sheer acceptance, and more
refuse to weep for fear of all acceptance,
but the weeping man, like the earth, requires nothing,
the man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
of his writhen face and ordinary body

not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow,
hard as the earth, sheer, present as the sea –
and when he stops, he simply walks between us
mopping his face with the dignity of one
man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.

Evading believers, he hurries off down Pitt Street.

Les Murray’s ‘An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow’ is an ‘extraordinary poem’ about ‘masculinity’ and ‘human empathy’, and the only rainbow that appears is in the form of a simile. In a distorted society feelings and emotions are kept secret, and dark fears and worries remain imbedded deep within individuals.

The isolation of society is shown when the crying man is situated in a busy street with ‘crowds’, yet he is so alone that ‘no one approaches’.

Weeping is a bitter-sweet emotion, but the rewards of inner peace through the release of grief and sorrow outweigh the pains of weeping. it is a “gift” to weep because it brings peace.

Amid unfeeling social mainstream the people have become afraid of change. The poem points out that people have become less dignified because they no longer openly express their feelings and attitudes. The man as a savior, can have the courage to openly weep at all the ills and worries of modern day life. Les Murray has used him to symbolize redemption, and the man is portrayed as a ‘messiah’ through the description- “Only the smallest children and such as look out of Paradise come near him and sit at his feet , with dogs and dusty pigeons.”

A rainbow is an explosion of colour that occurs after rain has occurred. It is a symbol of a dark and potentially dangerous environment event ceasing. They’re beautiful natural occurrences and a wonder that nearly everyone stops to admire. An “ordinary rainbow” suggests something that isn’t as special, that isn’t as breathtaking. That it is plain, dull and uneventful. This isn’t just an ordinary rainbow either, it is an “absolutely ordinary rainbow” which is an undisputable statement about this natural phenomenon. This reference alludes that maybe, this scene of the man publicly weeping isn’t an event that requires people’s attention.

An observer tells the story and portrays the weeping man. The Hero possesses the Power of a heroic qualities. The unconventional quality of power is greater and more heroic which is harder to come by so much so that everyone can not have it. His strength lies in his mind and so it’s greatly feared. ” the fiercest manhood,
the toughest reserve, the slickest wit amongst us

trembles with silence, and burns with unexpected
judgements of peace ” : : “Ridiculous, says a man near me, and stops
his mouth with his hands” : : This is the pessimistic skeptics which is converted into the ‘believers’ : : The way he executes unconventionally rather than speaking with words to the people noticing him , His strong mind shows his mighty emotions.: :: ” .. . the weeping man, like the earth, requires nothing,
the man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
of his writhen face and ordinary body

not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow,
hard as the earth, sheer, present as the sea –
and when he stops, he simply walks between us” : :

The verbal ( words and messages ) and its opposite way of communication , non verbal ( grief and sorrow ) emphasizes the superiority of non verbal means. Emotions – His weeping is his mighty power.

The second concept of the Hero and heroic qualities is NORMALITY : which defies the orthodox vision of a Hero . The poem’s Hero isan “Ordinary” Man.

“Some will say, in the years to come, a halo
or force stood around him. There is no such thing.” : : This line boldly eliminates the super natural Power of “a halo or force” Our Hero does not possess it. Hero’s superiority of an “Ordinary Man” in His “Normality” is shown also in the Final Stanza : “. .. . he simply walks between us
mopping his face with the dignity of one
man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.” : : “simply” suggests the connotation of “Naturalness” , “plainness” and “commonness” towards the Hero. He is just an ordinary man among the observers the people noticing Him and a narrator, and “.. . the man who weeps ignores us, and cries out
of his writhen face and ordinary body

not words, but grief, not messages, but sorrow,.. .” : : He has done something incredible . He has wept.

With this Spontaneous Weeping , the Third concept of “Hero” emerges. : : “MYSTERIOUS” and “Attention Grabbing” qualities of “Hero”: : This is hidden inside His Weeping And “The Reason for His Weeping”.: : An Observer/ Narrator and the People noticing Him develop “Curiousness” and “Apprehensiveness” : : which is shown through the repetition of allusions to very popular social meeting places in Sydney Curious Talks of this weeping Hero going round and round these places reaching the minds of so many people : : “ The word goes round Repins,
the murmur goes round Lorenzinis,
at Tattersalls, men look up from sheets of numbers,
the Stock Exchange scribblers forget the chalk in their hands
and men with bread in their pockets leave the Greek Club:
There’s a fellow crying in Martin Place. They can’t stop him.” : : Stanza 1 : :

The people are so enthralled with the weeping man in the midday light, “.. . in his pentagram of sorrow,
and uniforms back in the crowd who tried to seize him
stare out at him, and feel, with amazement, their minds
longing for tears as children for a rainbow.” : : From Stanza 4 : :

The People yern and long his “tears” ( His Reasons , His message for Weeping ) “as children for a 🌈 rainbow” : : With His MYSTERIOUSNESS He achieves Grabbing sceptic Poeople’s undivided Attention and proves His powerful influence by whatever means he wants. Thus with the use of the Three Powerful Concepts as Aforesaid , our Hero in the poem sends across the Message of ,”Unconventional Ways” Of becoming a “Hero” and “His Heroic Deeds: Which is possible because He is just “Simple” And an “Ordinary Man” : : His “Unmentioned Purpose” remains irrelevant. As a “Hero” , He causes a widespread feeling of “Belief” among the “disbelievers” which is accomplished and indicated in the last line : : “.. . with the dignity of one
man who has wept, and now has finished weeping.

Evading believers, he hurries off down Pitt Street.” : : : :

“An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow” : Poem by Les Murray : : : : information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 7 , 2022:

The World Is Too Much With Us : William Wordsworth : : Sonnet : : Nature Poems : :

The World Is Too Much with Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. —Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

William Wordsworth : :

“The World Is Too Much with Us” is a sonnet by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In it, Wordsworth criticises the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature. Composed circa 1802, the poem was first published in Poems, in Two Volumes (1807). It was a heartfelt response to the demise of the cottage industry and rural way of life, which had been taken over by mass production and factory work. People were no longer in touch with nature. Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! In these lines, the speaker contrasts Nature with “The World”. He reveals that while people spend their time in acquiring worldly possessions, the true beauty of the earth cannot be owned. The sonnet, ‘The World Is Too Much With Us’, is ironical in its representation of humans in relation to nature. For the poet, the nature is vast, large and indefinite whereas it is incomplete, little and insignificant to the people. He conveys his frustration about the state in which he sees the world. Throughout the poem the speaker emphatically states his dissatisfaction with how out of touch the world has become with nature. He thinks we have given our hearts away and eventually exclaims, “Great God!” The tone of the poem is elegiac (it’s like a poem mourning the dead) and near the end the speaker tells us he is “forlorn” – depressed at what he sees – and would rather be a pagan so that he wouldn’t feel so sad. Wordsworth sees people are obsessed with money and manmade objects. In the line ‘we lay waste our powers’ he means that these people can no longer identify with the natural world. The poet believes that we have given our hearts (the center of ourselves) away in exchange for money and material wealth. The main imagery that is in the poem is nature, the senses , feelings ,death and the use of Allusion is present as well through mentioning paganism and mythology. : : Like most Italian sonnets, its 14 lines are written in iambic pentametre.

In the early 19th century, Wordsworth wrote several sonnets blasting what he perceived as “the decadent material cynicism of the time.” : : : : : : “The World is Too Much with Us” is one of those works. It reflects his view that humanity must get in touch with nature to progress spiritually.” ( Phillips Brian / 17 August 2007 : SparkNotes on Wordsworth’s Poetry “The world is too much with us” ) : : : : : : : : The rhyme scheme of this poem is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-c-d, c-d. This Italian or Petrarchan sonnet uses the last six lines (sestet) to answer the first eight lines (octave). The first eight lines (octave) are the problems and the next six (sestet) are the solution.

Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us” information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 6 , 2022 ; ; : ; ભાદરવા સુદ અગિયારસ : : : : : : :

Leisure : W H Davies : :

**W. H. Davies (1871–1940), in Cornwall**

**Cyfarthfa Castle Museum Art Gallery – Harold Knight (1874–1961)**

**Time to see a Squirrel bating** **a brown Walnut**

**Time to see :” Streams full of Stars”**

**Hawaiian Hula Dancer Isolated on White Background**

**Time to see ” Beauty’s glance: Two Dancers gracefully dancing patterns of the feets and arms**

W. H. DAVIES
Leisure
WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

“Leisure” is a poem by Welsh poet W. H. Davies, appearing originally in his Songs Of Joy and Others, published in 1911 by A. C. Fifield and then in Davies’ first anthology Collected Poems by the same publisher in 1916. Although it was to become Davies’ best-known poem, it was not included in any of the five Georgian Poetry anthologies published by Edward Marsh between 1912 and 1922. Thirty-two of Davies’ other poems were.

It warns that “the hectic pace of modern life has a detrimental effect on the human spirit.”[1] Modern man has no time to spend free time in the lap of nature. In his 1963 Critical Biography of Davies, Richard J. Stonesifer traces the origins of the poem back to the sonnet “The World Is Too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth, saying:

“But he went to school with Wordsworth’s sonnet “The world is too much with us”, and echoes from that sonnet resound throughout his work as from few other poems. Philosophically, no other single poem can be said to form the basis of so much of his poetry. The celebrated opening of his wise little poem “Leisure” has its origins here. (“W. H. Davies – A Critical Biography, London: Jonathan Cape, pp. 219-220 )

Stonesifer traces the central idea to a number of Davies’ other poems – “The housebuilder” (from the 1914 The Bird of Paradise), “A Happy Life” and “Traffic”, as well as “Bells” and “This World”. Davies is generally best known for the opening two lines of this poem. It has appeared in most of the anthologies of his work and in many general poem anthologies, including:

Christopher Ricks, ed. (2008). New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. And Oxford University Press. Book of a Thousand Poems (1983), Peter Bedrick Books. : : Etc. The poem was misquoted, by the KGB in a 1991 secret message to their spy inside the FBI, Robert Hanssen.

Dear Friend:
Time is flying. As a poet said:
“What’s our life,
If full of care
You have no time
To stop and stare?”
You’ve managed to slow down the speed of Your running life to send us a message. And we appreciate it” ( AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. CRIMINAL NO. ROBERT PHILIP HANSSEN, (Paragraph 122)”. FBI. Retrieved 23 October 2013.) : : : :

Davies emphasizes prominently how modernity estranged the readers from simplicity. In fact a modern man has knowingly allowed the lose of his own simplicity. One doesn’t have leisure to experience the emotional sensations in one’s surroundings. All one has to do is to “stand and stare” at the simple activities of different creatures living close to nature. For this , one must find a “time”for mind and soul and come close to ” Nature ” : : Get relieved from the hectic life and invest the time in simple activities. Significance of the proximity with nature is the central idea of the poem in 14 Lines in a regular rhyme scheme of AA BB and it goes on like this. Modernity, Simplicity, Spirituality, Nature, and most importantly Leisure are the THEMES Of The Poem. The Simple Activities lead one to the Path To Spirituality. : :

“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:”
Couplets 1 & 2 : : Lines ( 1 To 4 ) : : : :

1. & 2. : : : : With this ornate question framed with the axis of life and time Davies presents an elegant appearance of the ‘Nature Poem’ which will follow up with some interesting imageries from Nature in the subsequent couplets. ‘What is the point of being alive.. . ?’ Explain the ‘object of activity’ that meets with an instant of ‘time‘. A person is alive with vigour , spirit and awareness of full of life. With an energetic style and heartiness ; A dynamism of body and mind. “Full of care” implies ‘full of worries’ of day- to-day routine occuring everyday , day -after -day , day- by- day which is an up-keeping of the necessities and periodical bodily requirements. The constant attention in modern times especially in metro- cities has flurrid a man who busies himself or herself fully with scheduled engagements. Hence , he or she will not have time good enough to simply “stand and stare” at the simple things in the Nature. No time to go out in the natural surroundings to observe and appreciate it. : : : : : : : In the 2 Nd couplet , Davies talks about “no time to stand beneath the boughs” ( line 3 ) : ( And no time to ) “stare as long as 🐑 sheep and 🐄 🐄 cows:” ( line 4 ) : : In following such timeworn examples in “sheep and cows” having plentiful time at their pasture land or places like stables as they are all domesticated animals in hold of their caretakers, Davies points in for the rustic simple scenes where the modern man living in metroplex will never go out as for him or her , it is not a part of the way of living. This line is ‘not elegant’ to appear with the central idea of the poem and seems created in concordance of rhyme for a word”boughs” in line 3. : : : :

“No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:” : : Couplets 3 & 4 : : Lines ( 5 To 8 ) : : : :

3 . & 4 : : : : While ( journeying ) , we move through the woods. But , in this woodsy forests , we have “no time to see.. . Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:”( lines 5 & 6 ) : : Here in the 4 Th Couplet, Davies presents a challenging finds in the Nature, which to him is fascinating : catches the wavelets and disturbances in the surface of the Streams , a sort of flash beams by the sunlight that makes the eye popping bright shines 🔯🌟🔯 🌟🔯 looking “Streams full of Stars, like skies at night:” ( lines 7 & 8 ) : : : : This imagery connects the heavenly Sky elements with Eart elements of Streams water. As he imagines this happenings “in broad daylight” although unbelievable it is amazingly impressive imagery to see , but we have “No time to see” : : : :

“No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?” : : : : : : : Couplets 5 & 6 : : : : Lines ( 9 To 12 ) : : : :

5 & 6. : : : : Here, the poet touches on the state of a beauty ‘about’ to “smile”: : ” her eyes” reflect the sense of happiness first. Then one can see how the emotion gets expressed through her ‘face’. A ‘quick and brief’ look at “beauty’s glance”: : ( of a beautiful girl/ woman/In Nature !?) ) : : with sparkling “eyes” and mended “enrich(ed) smiling face ( “mouth”) are the womanly picturesque figure of her beauty who gracefully and rhythmically moves with her dancing “feet” ( lines 9 To 12 ) and which Davies encourages a busy modern man to see in “her” ( not specified who she is : : A beautiful girl/woman at home or a lifeform in Nature !? Perhaps by required personification of the dancing patterns seen in few birds in their soaring flights or peacock’s dance with his beautiful plumages or the movements in some flowering plants or in the flowerbeds found in Nature ) : : The modern man has “No time” to turn to a beautiful girl and watch how her feet graciously move while she dances. Along with that, one doesn’t wait till her mouth can enrich that smile her eyes began. : : : :

“A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.” : : : : :: Couplet 7 : : :: Last Two Lines ( 13 & 14 ) : : ::

7. : : : : Refrains are used in poems and songs. They are repeated sections of text that usually appear at the end of a stanza or verse. The last Couplet 7 is an example of ‘Refrain’ : : The 1 St Opening Couplet is remodeled to the Closing Last Couplet 7 .: :. “poor life”, a metaphorical reference to mental poverty, is that of a person who doesn’t have time to “stand and stare”, that is to enjoy those things. : : : :

Enrich that smile her eyes began.” In the final couplet of the poem, Davies states that a life which is so bogged down by worry that it allows one no time for Leisure is indeed a miserable life. : : : : “A poor life this,” if full of care, there is no time to stand and stare. Henceforth, people need Leisure to experience the benefits of nature and the bliss of being alive. To conclude here it might be echoed of Wordsworth’s words that the ‘the world is too much with us’ like that of a burden which need a long vacation of Leisure. So little time for the simple enjoyment of things ! ! ?

“Leisure” Nature Poem : By WH Davies : : Information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 5 , 2022 : : : : ભાદરવા સુદ અગિયારસ ::

The Kingfisher : W H Davies : : Rainbow Poems : :

**Common kingfisher hovering with its beautiful plumage. In Britain, the word “kingfisher” normally refers to the common kingfisher.**

**Born : 3 July 1871**
**Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales — Died**
**26 September 1940 (aged 69)**
Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England : : Poet, writer, tramp : : Helen Matilda Payne (spouse 5 Feb. 1923) : : The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, “Leisure”, Notable works : Georgian poetry movement : He ( at age 14) missed the final moments of his grandfather’s death as he was too engrossed in reading “a very interesting book of wild adventure : The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1908) covers his American life in 1893–1899, including adventures and characters from his travels as a drifter. During the period, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean at least seven times on cattle ships. He travelled through many states doing seasonal work.: Attempting to jump a freight train at Renfrew, Ontario on 20 March 1899, he lost his footing and his right foot was crushed under the wheels of the train. The leg was amputated below the knee and he wore a peg-leg thereafter. : Davies took an ambivalent view of his disability. In his poem “The Fog”, published in the 1913 Foliage, a blind man leads the poet through the fog, showing the reader how someone impaired in one domain may have a big advantage in another. : : Davies returned to Britain, to a rough life, largely in London shelters and doss-houses: : At one point, he borrowed money to print poems, which he sold door-to-door in residential London. Davies self-published his first slim book of poetry, The Soul’s Destroyer, in 1905, again by means of his savings. In 1907, the manuscript of The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp drew the attention of George Bernard Shaw, who agreed to write a preface. : D H Lawrence after reading “Foliage” and ‘Nature Poems’ commented in Italy that “the verses seemed “so thin, one can hardly feel them.”: Davies had some 50 books at his cottage, poets, among them Shakespeare, John Milton, Wordsworth, Byron, Robert Burns, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Blake and Herrick.: He lived at 14 Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury dist. of London, from early 1916 until 1921 in a tiny two-room house.: Davies embarked on public readings of his work, alongside others : Hilaire Belloc and W. B. Yeats, impressing fellow poet Ezra **Pound : He also took up with artists** / personalities like Edith Sitwell, Belloc, De La Mare ,Nina Hamnet & ors. He was known for the opening lines of the poem “Leisure” in Songs of Joy & ors.(1911): “What is this life if, full of care / We have no time to stand and stare….”: 14 BBC broadcasts of Davies reading his work made between 1924 and 1940(Archived with BBC) : He became “the most painted literary man.His head in bronze was the most successful of Epstein’s smaller works. : Davies’ health continued to decline. He died in September 1940 at the age of 69. Never a churchgoer in adult life, Davies was cremated at the Bouncer’s Lane Cemetery, Cheltenham:His biographer Stonesifer likens the often childlike realism, directness and simplicity of Davies’ prose to that of Defoe and George Borrow. His style was described by Shaw as that of “a genuine innocent”: His nature poetry is founded on his delight in nature, and he exulted in revealing the loveliness of heaven and earth and his interest in the creatures:He had lived close to the earth and in the open air, and had grown to love the countryside with its fields, woods and streams, its hedges and flowers, its birds and beasts, bees and butterflies, its sunny and cloudy skies and capricious moods: His keen zest for life , adventure with an appreciation of the pleasures &finding in those simple things of daily precious life of dignity & **a wonder**: : **His friend/mentor Edward Thomas said ” it is** **natural to Davies to write, such as Wordsworth wrote, with the clearness, compactness and felicity** :

The Kingfisher : By William Henry Davies : ( July 3 , 1871 – September 26 , 1940 ). : : : : : : It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues; 2
And, as her mother’s name was Tears,
So runs it in my blood to choose 4
For haunts the lonely pools, and keep
In company with trees that weep. 6
Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud peacocks in green parks; 8
On lawns as smooth as shining glass,
Let every feather show its marks; 10
Get thee on boughs and clap thy wings
Before the windows of proud kings. 12
Nay, lovely Bird, thou art not vain;
Thou hast no proud, ambitious mind; 14
I also love a quiet place
That’s green, away from all mankind; 16
A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me. 18

William Henry Davies

In 1930 Davies edited the poetry anthology “Jewels of Song” for Cape, choosing works by over 120 poets, including William Blake, Thomas Campion, Shakespeare, Tennyson and W. B. Yeats. Of his own poems he added only “The Kingfisher” and “Leisure”. The collection reappeared as An Anthology of Short Poems in 1938. : : : :

In ‘The Kingfisher’ Davies explores themes of solitude, nature, and beauty. Kingfisher, the poet believed, was created from a rainbow and has all of its colors and is quiet, far from others as being a modest bird, lacking the peacock’s pride and ambition. The kingfisher likes to visit places that are green, lonely and quiet. Thus, it’s favourite haunts are lonely pools and by the weeping willow tree.The poet compares himself with the kingfisher by saying that like the kingfisher, he also prefers to visit the lonely pools where the branches of the trees droop over water. Then , he goes on to say that the rainbow’s mother’s name is Tears. Rainbows only emerge after a rain or in the presence of a watery vapor. … First, it helps the reader recall that things of beauty emerge after great pain, using Tears symbolically to represent rain. The single stanza poem contains 18 lines following a rhyming pattern of ABCBDDBEFEGGHIJIKK. This is less a pattern than it is an arrangement of lines that at times breaks into rhyming couplets and half-rhymes : : : :

“It was the Rainbow gave thee birth,
And left thee all her lovely hues; 2
And, as her mother’s name was Tears,
So runs it in my blood to choose 4
For haunts the lonely pools, and keep
In company with trees that weep. 6
Go you and, with such glorious hues,
Live with proud peacocks in green parks; 8

“The Kingfisher ” is spoken to by the poet as if it can hear and understand his poem , a song ( using this technique called ‘ ‘Apostrophe’ ) : Also , the poet calls “the Rainbow”as a mother who gave birth to “the Kingfisher”: The kingfisher is a small to medium-mixed brightly colored bird. often deep blue, orange, and yellow. Thus Kingfisher is a colorful bird and resembles rainbow which is also colorful. Hence, the poet thinks that the rainbow gave birth to the Kingfisher as both are similar in look i.e. both are very much colorful. It left “thee all her lovely hues” refers to the colours of the kingfisher’s feathers. ( This is an example of the ‘personification’: : The line (3): “her mother’s names Tears” refers to the rain and the presence of the rainbow after the rain has cleared. In lines 7 and 8 : the poet tells “the kingfisher” that it should go and be confident while walking with the “proud peacocks”. : : : :

“On lawns as smooth as shining glass,
Let every feather show its marks; 10
Get thee on boughs and clap thy wings
Before the windows of proud kings. 12
Nay, lovely Bird, thou art not vain;
Thou hast no proud, ambitious mind; 14
I also love a quiet place
That’s green, away from all mankind; 16
A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me.” 18

Here , the poet describes the peacocks and the park ( “On lawns as smooth as shining glass”) and how and when the Kingfisher can show off. It can land on the “boughs” ( larger branches ) of the trees and “clap thy wings” ( cause to strike the air in flight ). It should “grace.. the windows of proud kings” knowing that As it is just as grand and beautiful as anything in the proud kings’ palaces , it should use the ‘elegance’ and ‘beauty of movements’ which will be an ‘expression before’ their ‘decking windows’. But, In the line 13 “Nay, lovely Bird, thou art not vain;” the poet verifies that this is not what the Kingfisher is going to do, for its artistic possession of glorious hues of colours , and its ( enchanting bright ) appearance are not for any ‘exhibition’ for taking ‘false pride’ and it should not show any ‘exaggerated sense of self importance’ which is ‘unproductive’.( “thou art not vain”) : : because ” Thou hast no proud, ambitious mind” ( line 14 ) : : The poet “also loves a quiet place
That’s “green”.. away from all mankind,”; 16
“A lonely pool, and let a tree
Sigh with her bosom over me.” ( lines 15 To 18 ) : : They both like “a quiet .. green place (like) .. lonely pool , a weeping tree.. away from mankind.”: The poet loves Nature and likes to write poems about Nature. So he wishes that the Kingfisher should live in a natural surroundings of “lonely pool” and “sighing tree.” Just like he himself likes this living in the same way. Here , the poet as well as the trees are imagined as making an alike sound of “sighing”: meaning , they both suspire/heave , that is , breathing a clean air deeply and expelling the tiredness and/or sadness with the end result of getting a relief , yearning alike. And with this all the heaviness will be exasperated on an utterance with “sigh”: : It appears that sadness and/or tiredness run(s) through the blood of the kingfisher as well as through the poet’s life as it runs in the mother’s blood. The poem’s lines ( 1 To 4 ) mention ” .. . Rainbow gave thee birth.
And left thee all her lovely hues; 2 .. .her mother’s name was Tears,
So runs it in my blood to choose 4″ and this signifies a sense of sadness and anything which is not happy.”: One can hold dear and recognise like the poet appreciates the qualities of having no pride and lack of ambition in the lonesome life of the kingfisher. A regular visitor (“haunts”) of “lonely” or isolated pool under a tree weeps” There, they both ( the poet and the Kingfisher) can be amongst the quiet happiness amidst the Mother Nature. : : : :

“”The Kingfisher ” A Rainbow Poem by W. H. Davies : : information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 4 , 2022 : : ભાદરવા સુદ અષ્ટમી : : રાધાષ્ટમી : : : : : : : : : :

**Stand and Stare, statue by Paul Bothwell-Kincaid, Commercial Street, Newport : : : : ” Leisure”** **By WH Davies : : : :**

**What is this life if, full of care,**
**We have no time to stand and stare.**

**No time to stand beneath the boughs**
**And stare as long as sheep or cows.**

**No time to see, when woods we pass,**
**Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.**

**No time to see, in broad day light,**
**Streams full of stars, like skies at night.**

**No time to turn at beauty’s glance,**
**And watch her feet, how they can dance.**

**No time to wait till her mouth can**
**Enrich that smile her eyes began.**

**A poor life this if, full of care,**
**We have no time to stand and stare.**

**from Songs of Joy and Others (1911)**

On This Long Storm The Rainbow Rose : Emily Dickinson : : Rainbow Poems : :

**Bright Sun-shine , the green forests, the rainbow above, the wandering few clouds , little downpour, hot-air balloons and the listless elephants : Illustration : “The** **clouds like listless elephants , Horizons straggled down!” : Emily Dickinson**.

**Sunrise rainbow and scattered clouds ,songbirds bright Sun-shine**

**Nature landscape with green field and rural road, near a lake and forest. Sunrise scene, blue sky with soft clouds and rainbow, birds flying above the water : For a peaceful daybreak.**

**Archangel Michael Colin De Coter 1393**

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.

Part Four: Time and Eternity

V

ON this long storm the rainbow rose,
On this late morn the sun;
The clouds, like listless elephants,
Horizons straggled down.

The birds rose smiling in their nests, 5
The gales indeed were done;
Alas! how heedless were the eyes
On whom the summer shone!

The quiet nonchalance of death
No daybreak can bestir; 10
The slow archangel’s syllables
Must awaken her. F (1861) 194

“ON This Long Storm The Rainbow Rose ” By Emily Dickinson , is ‘Ballad Poem’ written in 1861 . We as a reader start involving with the visual presentations of the story , the 9 th line of the poem in 3Rd Stanza suddenly declares the quiet and calm indifference of death of some woman. Although this woman is not sorrowful in meeting with her death as her unconcerned trait of not caring and remaining calm as expressed in this line :: “The quiet nonchalance ( non-shu-lan(t)s ) of death”, the story telling ends abruptly just like ‘dead’ state quickly /shortly happens with a living person.

In the 1 St Stanza’s “ON this long storm the rainbow 🌈 rose, On this morn -sun-” we learn that after the stormy night , the disturbance has ended with a morning sun that has come up in the daybreak and. Somewhere in the downpour of the rain has created the beautiful rainbow 🌈 : : thus , the rainbow has welcomed the morning ☀️ sun. A slow activity of “The clouds” is like a listlessness of “elephants” On “Horizons” the things are wandering : spreading in different directions meaning ‘slowly disappearing’ as expressed in words : “straggled down”. : : : :

In the 2 Nd Stanza’s , “The Birds rose smiling, in their nests –
The gales – indeed – were done – ” : meaning the “Birds in their nests” , that is the birds alongside their little ones have waken up / “smiling” : chirping to the happy song on peaceful daybreak. “The gales” of a strong wind that moves 45 To 90 Knots / a force 7 To 10 on Beaufort Scale ; “were done” : passed by with the ending of the night storm by the morning daybreak. The eyes of a woman “On whom the summer shone !” are unconcerned of the sight before her. As stated in lines 8 & 9. She is already dead and so, unconcerned of the happy daybreak and not paying any heed or attention to the morning scene of the Birds or at the things in Horizons on ending of the night storm. She died in the night time when the strong storm was active with the disturbance. She can’t see the raised lines in the bow of “rainbow” welcoming the 🌞 sun. She is heedless to the beautiful gleam and glitter of the bright Sun-shine of the “daybreak” which can not awaken her from her grave. ” No daybreak can bestir” ( line 10 ) : The “Archangel Michael” ‘an angel ranked above the highest rank in the celestial hierarchy’ is empowered of ‘Resurrection’ and of the ‘weighing Souls’ will have to finally wake her up. The woman could not see the morning and died on the long storm when the rainbow rose : quietly , peacefully without any sadness or any anguish. : : : :

Emily Dickinson’s “ON This Long Storm When The Rainbow Rose” : : information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 3 , 2022 : : : : ભાદરવા સુદ આઠમ‌: : : :

The Rainbow Never Tells Me : : Emily Dickinson : : Rain / Rainbow Poems : :

**Gusty Wind : Desert dust storm, or haboob, with rainbow at sunset**

**Utah-Arches National Park. This image was captured after a violent storm, and this beautiful rainbow magically appeared!**

The rainbow never tells me
That gust and storm are by,
Yet is she more convincing
Than Philosophy.

My flowers turn from Forums—
Yet eloquent declare
What Cato couldn’t prove me
Except the birds were here!
– F 76 (1859) : :
Emily Dickinson

Storm chasing, Saskatchewan, Canada. If your lucky enough to get on a tail end of a storm, Lots of planning, getting lucky, you will end up with a nice beautiful image. Hope that low light slips through other clouds in the way. Image taken from a tripod. Just out side of Moose Jaw.

Approaching thunderstorm to the field with flower of rape plant: : Ripening of rape fields are common agriculture scene in Europe, these plants are being grown basically for bio-fuel as a green and alternative source of energy.

**Rainbow After the Storm over : landscape.**

**Rainbow over the lake: Beautiful mid-summer Storm Rainbow**

**Sunlight over the rain water droplet reflected design of colours: Blue, Green, Yellow , Orange and Red**

**A bolt of lightning caught amidst a sky featuring a rainbow over Edmonton, Alberta. Storm Rainbow**

“The Rainbow Never Tells Me” By Emily Dickinson speaks on the themes of nature, wisdom, and truth. The Rainbows and the activities of the Birds evince the Natural Wisdom.

“The rainbow never tells me
That gust and storm are by –
Yet is she more convincing
Than Philosophy.” : : Stanza 1 : quatrain of Lines ( 1 To 4 ) : :

1. : : The rainbow never tells her that the “gusts and storms are by” she is “more convincing than philosophy”. The poet disperses in to seven colours non-human object : Object of Rainbow 🌈 with human characteristics of telling and convincing which is more than philosophy : a very happy example of the personification. The “gust” is a strong current of air. The “storm” is a disturbance of a violent condition of weather ( with winds 64 to 72 knots : 11 on the Beaufort Scale ) involving precipitation , thunder and lightning. “The gust and storm are by” means simply the strong wind or the disturbance violently with thunder and lightning are in the neighborhood of ( nearby ) or close ( approaching ) to the place or along the pathway from where she is seeing the rainbow is not explained by the Rainbow. Dickinson refers to the rainbow as “she.”:Yet, Rainbow”is more convincing than philosophy.” : meaning the questions about the rational investigation in the existence and knowledge and ideas of right or wrong are more credibly answered and understood while looking to and listening to the Rainbow; And No need to understand it from the authoritative belief available in philosophy. One can find with Dickinson’s entire works for poetry and related writings , she always explores the themes of “Natural Wisdom”: Herein this short poem about rainbow, she speaks for the signified sense of the world in “NATURE” : : : :

“My flowers turn from Forums—
Yet eloquent declare
What Cato couldn’t prove me
Except the birds were here!” Stanza 2 : quatrain of Lines ( 5 To 8 ) : :

2. : : Seeing birds and flowers emerge every spring is more eloquent evidence of the nature of life than anything Cato (presumably the Younger) could have presented in his debate. Flowers return from the ground of the winter becoming warm at the onset of every Summer / Springtime. The continual self-renewal and natural advancement of the blooming plants brings a longtime happiness through their flowerbeds which “declare” this articulately. ( “eloquently”: speaking readily and clearly ) : “What Cato couldn’t prove me” through his contentions in any debate ( on blooming of flowers in say,some farmer’s forums during the Roman Empire ! ) : : Here Dickinson mentions “Cato” which is likely a reference to Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis commonly known as Cato the Younger. : :

Cato the Elder (234–149 BC), Roman soldier and author of ‘De agri cultura’, a rambling farmer’s almanac ( weather calender) focused on viniculture ( grapes & grapevines ) and the oldest extant book ( still available ) in Latin. Cato the Younger (95–46 BC), conservative politician noted for craftiness and stoicism ( an indifference to pleasure or pain : Stoicism is the philosophical system of Stoics following the teaching of the ancient Greek philosopher ‘Zeno’) : :

The birds wander through the flowerbeds ( looking for their eatages of crop- insects , flower/crop produces and the pollens/seeds and then disperse these pollens/ seeds. ) Surely , the new and continual crops and flowering ( plants ) then hold a feeling of the presence of birds year by year with assured spread and an advancement. In this way, “Flowers turn from Forums” speak to her of the birds, of life, and the return of life year after year. : : : :

We the reader(s)/ an appreciator know very well that the Rainbow can not speak , the flowers can not speak, yet their Presence in the world around us is majorly perceptible. : : : :

“The rainbow never tells me” : A Rainbow Poem By Emily Dickinson : : : : information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 2 , 2022 : : : : ભાદરવા સુદ છઠ : : : :

Still Falls The Rain : Dame Edith Sitwell : ( 1 ) : : Reading Video ( September 6,1941 ) By Edith Sitwell : ( 2 ) : : Jason Berger : Maxwell Britten : : Music Video ( Friday April 8 , 2016 ) Michigan Univ. School of Music , Theatre & Dance : ( 3 ) : : Rain Poems : :

Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) : : Her best Poem ” Still Falls The Rain” : “Good Friday” Poem : ponders human suffering and the salvation of the soul, a harbinger of Dame Edith’s conversion to Catholicism., Edith was a hoot just waiting to be photographed with her arched eyebrows, crazy headgear, and fingers heavily bejeweled. In that interesting seminal time in Europe between the wars, the sonorous Sitwell performed her poems on stage with abstract props and musical instruments, through holes in walls and megaphones, the sound of her words meant for the ear in the air, not a page full of words. : : Her two biographies of Queen Elizabeth the First were best sellers. “I write prose to make money,” she told us. She was generous to other poets and helped to get the ones she liked published. She was very kind to a young Dylan Thomas. Who thinks of Dame Sitwell now, or her equally famous brothers at the time, Osbert and Sachervell?

London Blitz of Bombings :Day, Night and Dawn :The Raids 1940 mentioned in the title refers to the nighttime bombing raids against London and other British cities by Nazi Germany during World War II between September 1940 and May 1941. The raids followed the failure of the German Luftwaffe to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain (July–September 1940). The war between the British and the Germans was a hard-fought battle and this poem was written about these times

**Crucifixion: Jesus Christ : Roman Empire Time**

https://youtu.be/3t74RdNUOQA

Still falls the Rain—
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss—
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.

Still falls the Rain
With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat
In the Potter’s Field, and the sound of the impious feet

On the Tomb:
Still falls the Rain

In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain
Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.

Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us—
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.

Still falls the Rain—
Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man’s wounded Side:
He bears in His Heart all wounds,—those of the light that died,
The last faint spark
In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark,
The wounds of the baited bear—
The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat
On his helpless flesh… the tears of the hunted hare.

Still falls the Rain—
Then— O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune—
See, see where Christ’s blood streames in the firmament:
It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree

Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart
That holds the fires of the world,—dark-smirched with pain
As Caesar’s laurel crown.

Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain—
“Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.” : : : : September 6 , 1941 : : Recording : : By Edith Sitwell : : CLICK HERE In ABOVE : : On The Top of the Post : :

Dame Edith Sitwell :. Benjamin Britten liked Still Falls the Rain so well, he wrote music for it. Two versions follow Edith Sitwell’s reading and the poem HERE In BELOW: : Jason Berger : Tenor : : Nathan Harris : Piano 🎹 : : Maxwell Stain : Horn:Benjamin Britten:Canticle III CLICK https://youtu.be/uZ3sjMYfqRU

“Still Falls The Rain” , is Modern Nature Poem , War Poem , Religious Poem and Sitwell’s ( 1887- 1964 ) one of the best Poems . It was written in 1940 in free verse amidst the world war II ‘s circumstances of British people’s sufferings that can be referential throughout the human history. 7 Stanzas have 35 lines which stand for 7 days week and stresses on the fullness of the suffering Christ continues to live on. The Title is repeated 6 times : And as per the Genesis 1 (Bible), the 6 Th day creation where Humans failed , God’ love prevailed. The bloodshed of London is compared to Christ. Courage , Faith and Hope are reflected in the poem. Mankind is O. K. with her failures as long as the kindness and love from God is unending promise always found through. Sitwell believes that faith and poetry will win everything in the last. The bombings of London , weeks of sufferings by the Londoners.

The Number of ‘allusions’ are religiously used. The phrases “Potter’s Field” in line 8 and “Field of Blood” in line 11, alludes the piece of land obtained with the thirty silver of Judas Iscariot. The Cain-Abel incident is used to define the impact of jealousy. Again, in line 15, she refers to a parable about the Dives and Lazarus, asking for mercy on, not just the victims but for those who cause it also. : : : : Like the rain that falls without minding about the Day or Night, The German troop attacked London Day and Night. In line 3, Sitwell refers to the rain as follows: “Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails”. The poem is stated in 1940 and nails used upon Christ has also its reference.

The rain can also symbolize the bloodshed by Christ’s side, which is a symbol of redemption for all sinners. Sitwell confirms this fact in line 19: “Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man’s wounded Side”. Christ shed His blood for everybody in the same way people are united in their communities during times of bombing. : : :: The wounds of the baited bear” in line 23, is symbolizing the suffering of all those people involved in the war. They look up to Christ to be saved. The same is present again when thinking about Jesus having been born in a stable among animals, as is explained in line 34.

“Still falls the Rain—
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss—
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.” : : Stanza 1 : : Lines ( 1 To 4 ) : : : :

1. : : The bombs dropped on London like falling rain. “Dark” , “black”, “loss” ,”blind” stand for the pain , sufferings and gloomness in the events of Christ’s crucifixion and 1940’s wartime.

” Still falls the Rain
With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat
In the Potter’s Field, and the sound of the impious feet

On the Tomb:
Still falls the Rain

In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain
Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.” : : Stanza 2 & 3 : : Lines

2 & 3. : : The falling rain is compared to the heartbeat (pulse) like the sound of the “hammer-beat” increases. Hammer-beat also symbolically refers to Judas Iscariot’s thumping heart at the potter’s Field, when he realized his mistake. “Potter’s Field” alludes to the land bought by Judas Iscariot where he killed himself out of guilt. It states that pain is a common thing to both the sufferer and the suffering. The “Field of Blood” finds a way to the land where Cain killed his brother Abel out of Jealousy. : : Human greed always lead to bloodshed.

“Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us—
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.” : : Stanza 4 : : Lines

4. : : “the feet of the Starved Man” symbolically referring to Christ upon the cross. The plea for mercy on both the “Dives” and “Lazarus” refers to the parable about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. The mercy should fall on both. The “sore”spot and the “gold”sport “are as one.”

“Still falls the Rain—
Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man’s wounded Side:
He bears in His Heart all wounds,—those of the light that died,
The last faint spark
In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark,
The wounds of the baited bear—
The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat
On his helpless flesh… the tears of the hunted hare.” : : Stanza 5 : : Lines

5. : : Christ takes all the pains of humans in His (“self -murdered”) heart ( full of “wounds” meant for humans) and agreed to die on the cross as an atonement for all the sins and suffering of people. He bears the tears of the hunted hare on his flesh.

“Still falls the Rain—
Then— O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune—
See, see where Christ’s blood streames in the firmament:
It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree

Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart
That holds the fires of the world,—dark-smirched with pain
As Caesar’s laurel crown.” : : Stanza 6 : : Lines

6. : : The second line of the sixth stanza refers to some of the final words of the self-condemned Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1588). Like Faustus, some leaders during World War II bargained with their lives for the sake of worldly gain. Jesus Christ was given a wreath made of thrones like the Laurel ( of coronation ) crown of Caesar who wore it to spread his success. The crown of thorns is compared as a symbol of victory over the sins of people.

“Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain—
“Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.” : : Stanza 7 : : Lines

7. : : Christ is still willing to forgive People. His heart is as innocent as a child’s heart. Christ was born in the place where the animals were kept : (“ a child who among beasts has lain–” ) : lie – lied-lain-dwelt : : God says that He is “still loving and forgiving.” Always available to shed His “Blood” and His “innocent light” : : “His voice likes the heart of man” : : The people should stop warring against each other and gain His forgiveness.

Dame Edith Sitwell’s ” Still Falls The Rain” : : information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India September 1 , 2022 : : ઋષિ પંચમી : : : : : ::

**Edith Sitwell together with Marlene Monroe**

**The Trio : Dame Edith with her Two brothers Osbert and Sacheverell : Sitwell Family : :**

All Day It Has Rained : Alun Lewis : : Rain Poems : :

Alun Lewis (1915 – 1944) Alun Lewis was born on 1 July 1915, exactly one year before the first day of the Battle of the Somme, at Cwmaman, a South Wales mining village. His father was a school teacher; his three brothers worked in the mines. From a young age, Lewis felt he had a vocation to be a writer. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School and at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth. He undertook postgraduate work at Manchester University and trained as a teacher. He was unsuccessful in his wish to become a journalist and instead earned his living as a supply teacher.As a boy, Alun Lewis had discovered and greatly admired the work of Edward Thomas, an admiration that continued for the rest of his life.: : Raiders Dawn and Other Poems, was published in 1942, establishing him as one of the outstanding war poets. He describes the loneliness of military life, the effect new places had on him and the experience of love with extraordinary maturity. The volume of his short stories, The Last Inspection, was also published that year.: : Despite his Pacifist leanings, he enlisted in the Royal Engineers in 1940, In November 1942 he sailed for India and in early 1944 he was moved to the Burmese front. On his way, at Arakan in Lower Burma, he was killed in a mysterious incident involving his own pistol. : : Alun Lewis’s second book of poems, Ha! Ha! Among the Trumpets, was published posthumously in August 1945 . : : Alun Lewis married Gweno Ellis in 1941 and much of his fine love poetry is addressed to her. : : (Vanessa Davis, February 2005 ) ( warpoets.org )

ALL DAY IT HAS RAINED

All day it has rained, and we on the edge of the moors
Have sprawled in our bell-tents, moody and dull as boors,
Groundsheets and blankets spread on the muddy ground
And from the first grey wakening we have found

No refuge from the skirmishing fine rain
And the wind that made the canvas heave and flap
And the taut wet guy-ropes ravel out and snap,
All day the rain has glided, wave and mist and dream,
Drenching the gorse and heather, a gossamer stream
Too light to stir the acorns that suddenly
Snatched from their cups by the wild south-westerly
Pattered against the tent and our upturned dreaming faces.
And we stretched out, unbuttoning our braces,
Smoking a Woodbine, darning dirty socks,
Reading the Sunday papers – I saw a fox
And mentioned it in the note I scribbled home;

And we talked of girls and dropping bombs on Rome,
And thought of the quiet dead and the loud celebrities
Exhorting us to slaughter, and the herded refugees;
-Yet thought softly, morosely of them, and as indifferently
As of ourselves or those whom we
For years have loved, and will again
Tomorrow maybe love; but now it is the rain
Possesses us entirely, the twilight and the rain.

And I can remember nothing dearer or more to my heart
Than the children I watched in the woods on Saturday
Shaking down burning chestnuts for the schoolyard’s merry play
Or the shaggy patient dog who followed me
By Sheet and Steep and up the wooded scree
To the Shoulder o’ Mutton where Edward Thomas brooded long
On death and beauty – till a bullet stopped his song

About “All Day It Rained” : Carol Rumens of the Guardian wrote in 2015 ; : ” Alun Lewis wrote this poem when he was stationed with the Royal Engineers at Longmoor, Hampshire. It was “Edward Thomas country”, and, for the young, reluctant lance corporal, a lucky first posting, or, at least, not the most unlucky. He must have felt that, despite the drudgery and “impersonality” of the soldier’s life, he could reconnect to what most mattered to him through this intimate geographical connection to the poet he loved. Lewis had visited Thomas’s grave at Steep in 1940. The poem was first published in Horizon in 1941, where it attracted considerable interest. Rain, of course, was a theme that Thomas himself favoured, and it might be thought a bold choice for the young poet. But Lewis brings his own confident style to his material. His tone contains less raw emotion than Thomas’s tone in Rain. What it lacks in concentration it gains in a wealth of observation, and a down-to-earth vocabulary. The spacious lines accommodate ground-sheets, blankets, guy ropes, Sunday papers, dirty socks …

Rhythmically, the poem seems to be a loose variant on the elegiac couplet. But Lewis writes with fluid strokes and nothing about his metre and rhythm is predictable. Particularly daring is the shift to tetrameter in lines 21 and 22, as the speaker moves on from general thoughts and conversation to more personally significant considerations. : : The doubt and hope (maybe those loved will be loved again tomorrow, but it’s only “maybe”) are almost chastised in the line ending “but now it is the rain” – and so the hexameter is restored for the closing of that first stanza. Lewis singles out the fifth line, leaving “rain” without a rhyme, for instance, while there are two lines ending with “rain” at the end of the stanza. This device doesn’t imitate the sound of rain, of course – the word simply can’t do that – but evokes the look of it, the long slanting lines, and the clinging and drenching. Elsewhere, there are a couple of full rhymes which may be making their debut in serious poetry in English ” : : ( the guardian.org : Mon 1 Jun 2015 05.46 EDT ) ::

Lewis describes the loneliness and boredom of army life and his yearning for home and family. In the final stanza, recalling the Saturday he spent back home watching the local children shaking conkers from the trees, and the dog that followed him to the pub where Edward Thomas used to drink (Thomas was killed in action at the Battle of Arras in 1917). Children and animals, of course, are both innocents: they have no true conception of evil, or war. The contrast between Lewis’s wartime surroundings and his memories of civilian life back home is striking.

Let us make notes for each of the Stanzas : : Pending visit this post again later on to enjoy the appreciation of the poem: : : : V Jayaraj Pune India August 31 , 2022 : :

Rain : Edward Thomas : : Rain Poems : :

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying to-night or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint. Edward Thomas : : ( Written in 1916 ) : : : :

Thomas would himself be killed at the Battle of Arras in 1917, a year after he wrote “Rain”which is about Edward Thomas’s experience of sitting in a hut all night alone, listening to the rain falling and meditating on his death and on the fates of his fellow soldiers in the First World War. Thomas expresses a wish that nobody whom he has loved in the past is now lying awake, wherever they may be, unable to sleep, or – worse still – is dying Edward Thomasthis night.There is a consistent pattern of rhyme but there is a metrical pattern and a great deal of repetition. The word “rain” throughout the eighteen lines, as it appears eight times / 3 times in the 1 st line only : in 18 lines of 1 Stanza poem. The words “death” and “dead” and “die,” create a link to the main theme of this piece. Edward Thomas describes a speaker’s relationship with death. The rain is a reminder that the speaker is going to “die.” In ‘Rain’ he hopes to convey what it was like to live with the constant presence of one’s own death. The lonely moments remind him once more of his fate. These moments, which are marked by loneliness . The speaker is alone, within a trench, in the war frontline. Amidst the wild midnight incessant rains, pounding on the hut’s roof , his condition is the good. The rain washes him “cleaner” than he was born in the solitude. So , the rain is not that bad. The final lines see the speaker turning from anything “perfect” as it cannot be trusted. Death though is a constant.

When the dead are in the path of the rain , they become blessed by the touch of the Rain. The stains of the war are also washed away. He knows the solitude of his own situation and does not wish it upon anyone. He “pray(s) that none those he once “loved” are living as he is now and hopes his friends and family are safe, not “dying to-night or lying still awake / Solitary.” He recognises that some of these people could be “in sympathy,” thinking about those they love in solitude. Either way, this is not something he wishes for his loved ones.

In the final Stanza , The speaker helplessly imagines his loved ones stranded between the ” living and the dead ” : : These friends and family members, or the acquaintances, trapped as a “cold water” would be “among broken reeds” in a river. There is a “Myriad,” all of which are “still and stiff.” These long grasses are hard to navigate through, almost impossible. They represent the struggle of living day-to-day.

In the last 4 lines it is concluded that others have “no love” that has not been “dissolved” by the rain. The love of death more importantly is ever present. The love for death can not disappoint him. What is perfect can not exist. He loves tangible but inescapable. And he can depend only on Death and nothing else. Thomas himself would be killed in the battle of Areas in 1917 , a year after he wrote this poem ” Rain” : : : :

Edward Thomas’s ” Rain” : : Information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India August 30 , 2022 : : ભાદરવા સુદ ત્રીજ : : કેવડા ત્રીજ : : : : : : : :

To The Rainbow : Thomas Campbell : : Rain / Rainbow Poems : :

**Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence c. 1810 : : Best Poems of Thomas Campbell**
**Glenara**
**To The Evening Star**
**Lord Ullin’s Daughter**
**Battle Of The Baltic, The**
**River Of Life, The**
**The Beech Tree’s Petition**
**Last Man, The**
**The Pleasures Of Hope (excerpt)**
**The Child And The Hind**
**The Exile Of Erin**
**The Last Man**
**Freedom And Love**
**The Battle Of The Baltic**
**Hope**
**Hohenlinden**
**Love And Madness**
**Hope Triumphant In Death**
**Lochiel’s Warning**
**The Dirge Of Wallace**
**Ode To The Memory Of Burns**

**Thomas Campbell by Edward Hodges Baily, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow : : Born On : 27 July 1777**
**Glasgow, Scotland — Died On 15 June 1844 (aged 66)**
Boulogne, France. Resting place: : Westminster Abbey . Spouse : Matilda Sinclair ( 1803 – 1829 ) : : Thomas Campbell was a Scottish poet. He was a founder and the first President of the Clarence Club and a co-founder of the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland; he was also one of the initiators of a plan to found what became University College London. In 1799 he wrote “The Pleasures of Hope”, a traditional 18th-century didactic poem in heroic couplets. He also produced several patriotic war songs—”Ye Mariners of England”, “The Soldier’s Dream”, “Hohenlinden” and, in 1801, “The Battle of the Baltic”, but was no less at home in delicate lyrics such as “At Love’s Beginning”.: : Educated at the High School of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, where he won prizes for classics and verse-writing.Among his contemporaries in Edinburgh were Sir Walter Scott, Henry Brougham, Francis Jeffrey, Thomas Brown, John Leyden and James Grahame. These early days in Edinburgh influenced such works as The Wounded Hussar, The Dirge of Wallace and the Epistle to Three Ladies : : In 1799, six months after the publication of the Lyrical Ballads of Wordsworth and Coleridge, “The Pleasures of Hope” was published. It is a rhetorical and didactic poem in the taste of his time, and owed much to the fact that it dealt with topics near to men’s hearts, with the French Revolution, the partition of Poland and with negro slavery. Its success was instantaneous: : In June 1800 , He found refuge in a Scottish monastery while visiting France. Some of his best lyrics, “Hohenlinden”, “Ye Mariners of England” and “The Soldier’s Dream” (which was later set by Beethoven), : : On the outbreak of war between Denmark and England he hurried home, the “Battle of the Baltic” being drafted soon after. : : in 1805 he received a government pension of £200. while staying in Sydenham. Employed on the Star newspaper, for which he translated the foreign news. In 1809 he published a narrative poem in the Spenserian stanza, Gertrude of Wyoming – referring to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and the Wyoming Valley Massacre – with which were printed some of his best lyrics. : : In 1812 he delivered a series of lectures on poetry in London at the Royal Institution; and he was urged by Sir Walter Scott to become a candidate for the chair of literature at Edinburgh University. His pecuniary anxieties were relieved in 1815 by a legacy of £4000.: : Published in 1819. It contains a selection with short lives of the poets, and prefixed to it a critical essay on poetry. In 1820 he accepted the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine. He was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University (1826–1829) in competition against Sir Walter Scott. “The Pleasures of Hope”, and the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Russians in 1831 affected him as if it had been the deepest of personal calamities. “Poland preys on my heart night and day,” he wrote. In 1834 he travelled to Paris and Algiers, where he wrote his Letters from the South (printed 1837).: : His wife died in 1828. Of his two sons, one died in infancy and the other became insane. His own health suffered, and he gradually withdrew from public life. He died at Boulogne on 15 June 1844 and was buried on 3 July 1844[9] Westminster Abbey at Poet’s Corner.

**Rainbows “O’er the mountains yet untrod”**

**Rainbow 🌈 over the pathless mountains: : “Bless.. the child held aloft”**

**Rainbow : Idyllic view over green field**

**A set of Syringes and a needle ready for medications: ” Nor lets the type grow pale with age” Thomas Campbell : : Free Humanity from the Sicknesses: :**

**Ukraine Flag, with sunflower for sunshine, and PEACE TO ALL**

To the Rainbow
By Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

TRIUMPHAL arch, that fill’st the sky
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud philosophy
To teach me what thou art. 4

Still seem as to my childhood’s sight, 5
A midway station given,
For happy spirits to alight
Betwixt the earth and heaven. 8

Can all that optics teach unfold 9
Thy form to please me so,
As when I dreamed of gems and gold
Hid in thy radiant bow? 12
When Science from Creation’s face
Enchantment’s veil withdraws,
What lovely visions yield their place
To cold material laws! 16
And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, 17
But words of the Most High,
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky. 20

When o’er the green, undeluged earth 21
Heaven’s covenant thou didst shine,
How came the world’s gray fathers forth
To watch thy sacred sign! 24

And when its yellow lustre smiled 25
O’er mountains yet untrod,
Each mother held aloft her child
To bless the bow of God. 28

Methinks, thy jubilee to keep, 29
The first-made anthem rang
On earth, delivered from the deep,
And the first poet sang. 32
Nor ever shall the Muse’s eye 33
Unraptured greet thy beam;
Theme of primeval prophecy,
Be still the prophet’s theme! 36
The earth to thee her incense yields, 37
The lark thy welcome sings,
When, glittering in the freshened fields,
The snowy mushroom springs. 40

How glorious is thy girdle cast 41
O’er mountain, tower, and town,
Or mirrored in the ocean vast,
A thousand fathoms down! 44

As fresh in yon horizon dark, 45
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam. 48

For, faithful to its sacred page, 49
Heaven still rebuilds thy span;
Nor lets the type grow pale with age,
That first spoke peace to man. 52

Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.

“To the Rainbow” by Thomas Campbell is a religious poem that uses the rainbow as a sign of God’s love and presence on earth. In ‘To the Rainbow’ Campbell explores the themes of religion, God, and nature. The poem speaks on the power of Science, or lack thereof, to define the word adequately. The speaker instead turns to religion as a source of meaning in the world and relates it to the appearance of a rainbow in the sky. Let us take pleasure in the description of a “rainbow” as a “triumphal arch” made by nature : : : :

Series of metaphors and similes present the comparison of a rainbow to God’s presence. The demarcation line is drawn for the religion and natural beauty against science. No one can define what a rainbow is without it losing some of the shining it holds on its own. The personal contemplation are made by the people and the creatures around the world on viewing the rainbow, the joy it can bring, and how it is conserved as a symbol of God. 13 Stanza Poem is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a simple rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD, changing end sounds as the poet saw fit. They are also all rather similar in meter and line length. : : : :

“Triumphal arch, that fill’st the sky

When storms prepare to part,

I ask not proud Philosophy

To teach me what thou art; –

Still seem; as to my childhood’s sight,

A midway station given

For happy spirits to alight

Betwixt the earth and heaven.” : : Stanza 1 &2 : : Lines : ( 1 To 8 ) : : : :

1 & 2 : Here , the “triumphal arch” is something that fills the sky after the storms are over and cannot be described by philosophers. With his youthful eyes the rainbow seemed to him to be a “midway station” for a break of an intermission whereas happy spirits get lighted taking rest as they are travelling from earth to heaven. : : : :

” Can all that Optics teach unfold

Thy form to please me so,

As when I dreamt of gems and gold

Hid in thy radiant bow?

When Science from Creation’s face

Enchantment’s veil withdraws,

What lovely visions yield their place

To cold material laws! ” : : Stanza 3 & 4 : : Lines : ( 9 To 16 ) : : : :

3 & 4 : : There is nothing that science could tell him that would please him as much as how he perceives and used to perceive the rainbow.

He warns in the 4 Th Stanza that when science is turned from creational aspects to everything that’s fascinating in its covering withdraws. All that remains is “cold material laws” yielded by lovely vision ! And this is not endearing. : : : :

“And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams,

But words of the Most High,

Have told why first thy robe of beams

Was woven in the sky.

When o’er the green, undeluged earth

Heaven’s covenant thou didst shine,

How came the world’s gray fathers forth

To watch thy sacred sign!” : : Stanza 5 & 6 : Lines : ( 17 To 24 ) : : : :

5 & 6 : : The rainbow is ” fair bow” : : God is the “Most High” source of the rainbow who has given His “words”: The purpose : being invented by His “dreams” , His words speak of true and real. It is His flowing “robe” transmitted colourful rays that “was woven in the sky.” : :

In the sixth stanza, he imagines the very first time that “thou didst shine”. The “gray fathers,” those who were alive then and came out to “watch thy sacred sign.” It was a holy promise made by the God to the people of the world which was thus fulfilled and reflected brightly. : : : :

“And when its yellow luster smiled

O’er mountains yet untrod,

Each mother held aloft her child

To bless the bow of God.

Methinks, thy jubilee to keep,

The first-made anthem rang

On earth, delivered from the deep,

And the first poet sang.” : : Stanzas 7 & 8 : : Lines ( 25 To 32 ) : : : :

7 & 8 : : When the first rainbow came in to the sky, each mother held her child high up (“aloft”) to get the blessings / divine protection “from the bow of God.”over the mountains 🗻 seen with the golden (“yellow”) shines (“smile”) of splendor (“luster”) were inaccessible for lacking pathways(“untrod”) : :

The 8 Th Stanza with “Methinks” that the “jubilee” ( celebration of the special anniversary ) of seeing the rainbow , the “first poet sang”tbe anthem rang and presented from the deepness of the God. Thus, the rainbow is the rootage of art, music, and a place to remember God’s love/presence on “Earth.”: : : :

“Nor ever shall the Muse’s eye

Unraptured greet thy beam;

Theme of primeval prophecy,

Be still the prophet’s theme!

The earth to thee her incense yields,

The lark thy welcome sings,

When, glittering in the freshened fields,

The snowy mushroom springs.” : : Stanza 9 & 10 : : Lines ( 33 To 40 ) : : : :

9 & 10 : : No one who has no appreciation for such things, will look at the rainbow and will not feel (“rapture”) that is will have no feel of an elated bliss ( an ecstasy ) : : Anyone who realizes the beauty of the world or loves God will “greet thy beam” as if prophecy ( preaching of the prophet ) : :

In the 10 Th Stanza. the speaker tells of how all the elements work together to worship and welcome the sight into the sky. “Thy welcome” sings the lark when the brightness in the refresh fields shines and the snowy mushroom emerges with the springtime. the “earth” gives up its “incense” to the sky. Thus, the earth’s soul is represented in the rainbow. : : : :

” How glorious is thy girdle, cast

O’er mountain, tower, and town,

Or mirrored in the ocean vast,

A thousand fathoms down!

As fresh in yon horizon dark,

As young thy beauties seem,

As when the eagle from the ark

First sported in thy beam:” : : Stanza 11 & 12 : : Lines ( 41 To 48 ) : : : :

11 & 12 : : The rainbow is referred to as a “glorious…girdle”. It is “cast” over the mountain, tower, and town. It reaches all people and all places and even touches the bottom of the ocean. This is a metaphor for God and the reach of God’s power and love.

The 12 Th Dtanza is an example of similes that speak on the rainbow, the continuation of its beauty, and the striking moment “when the eagle from the ark / First sported in thy beam”. This alludes to Noah’s ark, the flood, and the end of the storm. It speaks to hope and peace.: : : :

“For, faithful to its sacred page,

Heaven still rebuilds thy span;

Nor lets the type grow pale with age,

That first spoke peace to man.” : : Stanza 13 Lines ( 49 To 52 ) : : : :

13 : : The last Stanza cites”sacred page” again. The Heaven as per its agreement with the humans maintains its promise to “rebuild” the rainbow’s span. Hence, It continually sends forth into the sky, reminding everyone on Earth of “that first spoke peace to man”. Here an indirect mentio is another reference of passing covenant : : In Bible , A solemn agreement between God and His people ( the humans ) in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behaviours from them in return : And that is called “Covenant”: : ” the type are not let grow pale with age and .. . Peace to man .” : : Thus ‘The Rainbow , The Presence Of God On The Earth’ is A RESOURCING CONTENT OF PEACE ☮️ FOR ALL HUMANITY’ : : : :

” To The Rainbow” By Thomas Campbell : : Information Appreciation and poem Analysis Presented by V Jayaraj Pune India August 29 , 2022 : : : : : : : : ભાદરવા સુદ એકમ : : ::