After Rain
For three whole days across the sky,In sullen packs that loomed and broke,With flying fringes dim as smoke,The columns of the rain went by;At every hour the wind awoke;The darkness passed upon the plain;The great drops rattled at the pane.
Now piped the wind, or far aloofFell to a sough remote and dull;And all night long with rush and lullThe rain kept drumming on the roof:I heard till ear and sense were fullThe clash or silence of the leaves,The gurgle in the creaking eaves.
But when the fourth day came--at noon,The darkness and the rain were by;The sunward roofs were steaming dry;And all the world was flecked and strewnWith shadows from a fleecy sky.The haymakers were forth and gone,And every rillet laughed and shone.
Then, too, on me that loved so wellThe world, despairing in her blight,Uplifted with her least delight,On me, as on the earth, there fellNew happiness of mirth and might;I strode the valleys pied and still;I climbed upon the breezy hill.
I watched the gray hawk wheel and drop,Sole shadow on the shining world;I saw the mountains clothed and curled,With forest ruffling to the top;I saw the river's length unfurled,Pale silver down the fruited plain,Grown great and stately with the rain.
Through miles of shadow and soft heat,Where field and fallow, fence and tree,Were all one world of greenery,I heard the robin ringing sweet,The sparrow piping silverly,The thrushes at the forest's hem;And as I went I sang with them.
Words in this poem 17
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- piped a.
- Formed with a pipe; having pipe or pipes; tubular.
- sough n.
- A small drain; an adit. W. M. Buchanan. [Etymol. uncertain.]
- lull v. t.
- To cause to rest by soothing influences; to compose; to calm; to soothe; to quiet. [Akin to OD. lullen to sing to sleep, G. lullen, Dan. lulle, Sw. lulla; all of imitative origin. Cf. Loll, Lollard.]
- drumming n.
- The act of beating upon, or as if upon, a drum; also, the noise which the male of the ruffed grouse makes in spring, by beating his wings upon his sides.
- gurgle v. i.
- To run or flow in a broken, irregular, noisy current, as water from a bottle, or a small stream among pebbles or stones. [Cf. It. gorgogliare to gargle, bubble up, fr. L. gurgulio gullet. Cf. Gargle, Gorge.]
- sunward adv.
- Toward the sun.
- fleecy a.
- Covered with, made of, or resembling, a fleece.
- rillet n.
- A little rill. Burton.
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- breezy a.
- Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy.
- greenery n.
- Green plants; verdure.
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- silverly adv.
- Like silver in appearance or in sound.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After Rain is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lyrics of Earth, Project Gutenberg ebook #12664; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Archibald Lampman, After Rain, in Lyrics of Earth (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12664, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lampman-lyrics/after-rain.html, id L11101.
Form and metre
After Rain is 42 lines in 6 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBABCC, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBABCC skyA · brokeB · smokeB · byA · awokeB · plainC · paneC
- 2 ABBA-CC aloofA · dullB · lullB · roofA · full · leavesC · eavesC
- 3 ABBAB-- noonA · byB · dryB · strewnA · skyB · gone · shone
- 4 ABBABCC wellA · blightB · delightB · fellA · mightB · stillC · hillC
- 5 ABBABCC dropA · worldB · curledB · topA · unfurledB · plainC · rainC
- 6 A--A-BB heatA · tree · greenery · sweetA · silverly · hemB · themB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For three whole days across the sky, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| In sullen packs that loomed and broke, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With flying fringes dim as smoke, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The columns of the rain went by; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At every hour the wind awoke; | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| The darkness passed upon the plain; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The great drops rattled at the pane. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Now piped the wind, or far aloof | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Fell to a sough remote and dull; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And all night long with rush and lull | 8 | ········ |
| The rain kept drumming on the roof: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I heard till ear and sense were full | 8 | ········ |
| The clash or silence of the leaves, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The gurgle in the creaking eaves. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But when the fourth day came--at noon, | 8 | ········ |
| The darkness and the rain were by; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The sunward roofs were steaming dry; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And all the world was flecked and strewn | 8 | ········ |
| With shadows from a fleecy sky. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The haymakers were forth and gone, | 8 | ·/·˘···· |
| And every rillet laughed and shone. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Then, too, on me that loved so well | 8 | ········ |
| The world, despairing in her blight, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Uplifted with her least delight, | 8 | /˘˘···˘/ |
| On me, as on the earth, there fell | 8 | ········ |
| New happiness of mirth and might; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| I strode the valleys pied and still; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I climbed upon the breezy hill. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I watched the gray hawk wheel and drop, | 8 | ········ |
| Sole shadow on the shining world; | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| I saw the mountains clothed and curled, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With forest ruffling to the top; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I saw the river's length unfurled, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Pale silver down the fruited plain, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Grown great and stately with the rain. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Through miles of shadow and soft heat, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Where field and fallow, fence and tree, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Were all one world of greenery, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| I heard the robin ringing sweet, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The sparrow piping silverly, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| The thrushes at the forest's hem; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And as I went I sang with them. | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.