There Will Come Soft Rains
- There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
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And swallows calling with their shimmering sound;
- And frogs in the pools singing at night,
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And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;
- Robins will wear their feathery fire
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Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
- And not one will know of the war, not one
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Will care at last when it is done.
- Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
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If mankind perished utterly;
- And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
- Would scarcely know that we were gone.
Footnotes
This poem by Sara Teasdale alludes to obliteration of human race by a war. It has been adapted in many works especially the one by Ray Bradbury by the same name. His short story, published in the Cold War era, depicts the destruction of humanity by a nuclear war. It describes the devastating effects that the nuclear weapons can have, and portrayed the fear that was in everyone’s mind following the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki few years ago.
The poem reminds us that our existence is not as important as it sometimes lauded to be, which is depicted in the last few lines of the poem. The birds, the trees, the frogs won’t even notice if humanity vanish. The nature will go on as before. It reminds us of our place in this world that we should have more humility, empathy, and compassion, and not be too proud of our existence.