like rain Flashcards
‘Like Rain it sounded till it curved’ simile
verbs
confusion of what ‘it; is being described
ostensibly ‘it’= rain, but aural verb sounded + kinetic verb ‘curved’= increased sense of elusive referent
’ + and then I knew ‘twas wind’
:L2= ‘wind’ but simple diction contains pun ‘wind’ = pentecostal wind of god’s Holy Spirit incarnated in nature or ‘wind’= process of poetic genius ‘winding’ sublime expereiences into slanted language of dazzling beauty
= both the pentecostal wind of god’s majesty which the poet vate hears whistling alliteratively (walked as wet as any wave)
= but also the poetic genius which ‘winds’ sublime experiences into Language
‘it filled the wells, it pleased the pools’ Anaphora and liquid consonance (l) + personified verb
increased momentum of anaphora escalates rain’s impact upon environment’s
rain initially ‘pleases’ earth but threat of its indignation foreshadowed gurgling liquidity
‘It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the floods abroad-‘
metaphor + liquid consonance becomes fronted
rain intensifies: metaphor ‘pulls spigot from road’ = man’s inability to measure and contain nature’s power
as the storm becomes violent it lets ‘floods abroad’ + /l/ consonance previously embedded within words becomes fronted and leading to a sense of rain’s terror and plentitude
‘it loosened acres, lifted seas’ imagery and continued liquidity + anaphora
rainstorm reaches final apocalyptic crescendo + destructive memory (;loosened acres’ and ‘lifted seas’) = increased sense of chaos as if nature’s temporal and spatial coordinates collapsing and continuation of /l/ initial position
ironically, when nature struggles to contain its own force, speaker/poet excelling in evincing nature’s power in words
‘then like Elijah Roda away upon a wheel of cloud’ = allusion
final couplet allusion to Elijah= both storm’s dissaperance + sense that speaker poet has become and Elijah figure, lifted up to the heavens, made almost god-like by their unique perception of Nature and ability to inscribe in lang.
