Rain in Summer by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Rain relieves dusty streets and dry fields after the heat. A sick man feels calmer, schoolboys sail toy fleets in street pools, oxen rest in wet furrows, and a farmer anticipates gain from his watered crops. The poet imagines Aquarius scattering rain, follows the drops underground and back to heaven, and sees the universe as a wheel turning through the river of Time.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Descriptive Poetry · 795 words
First lines
How beautiful is the rain! / After the dust and heat, / In the broad and fiery street, / In the narrow lane, / How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs, / Like the tramp of hoofs / How it gushes and struggles out / From the throat of the overflowing spout!
Genres
- Nature Poetry — The verse follows rainfall from roofs and gutters to dry grass, grain fields, and water rising again toward heaven.
- Meditative Poetry — The poet's thought follows water underground and upward before envisioning recurring birth and death within a universe turning through time.
- Descriptive Poetry — Rhyming stanzas describe overflowing spouts, muddy gutters, boys' toy fleets, and oxen inhaling air scented with clover.
Tags
summer rain · farming · schoolboys · oxen · water cycle · poetic imagination
What this Textopian page supports
Rain in Summer is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Nature Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Descriptive Poetry
- Length: 795 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for Rain in Summer by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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