Rain

Question 1

Who is the author of Rain?

AND Is there any background context to the poem?

Answer 1

• Edward Thomas
• Poem written in trenches during WW1, when Thomas was serving as corporal. He was an older man and could have avoided listing and yet ultimately chose to, leaving his wife and 3 children at home

Question 2

What are the central themes of Rain?

Answer 2

• Nihilism = Hopelessness of existence
• Loneliness = Rain as metaphor
• War, impending doom = Pathetic fallacy
• Legacy

Question 3

What is the structure of Rain?

Answer 3

• Enjambement = Accentuates inevitability of death, imitating seamless, ever-flowing rain?

Question 4

How does Thomas portray the awfulness of war in his poem Rain?

Evidence # 1

4 pieces of evidence recommended

Answer 4

• ‘Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain’
• ‘Rain’ = Repetition of rain’, inevitability of impending doom
• ‘Nothing’ = Negation emphasises emptiness of environmnet of the trenches – there is ‘nothing’ else, only rain
• ‘Wild’ = Rain as uncontrollable and untamed, portrays onslaught of nature’s power

Question 5

How does Thomas portray the awfulness of war in his poem Rain?

Evidence # 2

4 pieces of evidence recommended

Answer 5

• ‘On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me remembering again that I shall die’
• ‘Bleak hut’ = Dismal and sombre tone
• ‘Shall’ = Emphasises inevitability of death

Question 6

How does Thomas portray the awfulness of war in his poem Rain?

Evidence # 3

4 pieces of evidence recommended

Answer 6

• ‘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’
• ‘Blessed’ = Religious semantics give fallen soldiers a send-off that they haven’t otherwise recieved
• ‘Rain rains’ = Repetition intensifies powerful gloom of tone by helping to emphasises the rhythmic tapping of rain on the hut’s roof, also portraying the speaker’s obsessive, cyclical thought patterns
• ‘Is dying to-night’ = Emphasises losses soldiers suffered, constanly losing those they were working and living with
• ‘Lying still awake’ = Emphasises with those ‘still lying awake’ like his, suggests that these could also be at home affected (ie. relatives ‘in sympathy’ for soldiers)

Question 7

How does Thomas portray the awfulness of war in his poem Rain?

Evidence # 4

4 pieces of evidence recommended

Answer 7

• ‘Helpless among the living and the dead, like a cold water among broken reeds’
• ‘Helpless’ = Foregounds ‘helpless’ accentuating pain and despair felt by all those connected to the war, both in it and at home
• ‘Water’ = Simile suggesting helplessness feels like ice-cold dread
• ‘Broken reeds’ = Simile comparing soldiers to ‘broken reeds’. Since ‘reeds’ are often used for inventing structures, this implies weary posture and exhaustion of soliders, their injuries and broken bodies, or perhaps their disillusionment with the war

Question 8

What is your personal response to Rain?

OR How can the ending of Rain be interpreted?

Answer 8

Thomas implies that death would be a welcome relief from the ‘tempest’ of life from war, in which life’s chaos juxtaposes with the quietly ‘perfect’ death