A Sudden Shower
Barefooted boys scud up the streetOr skurry under sheltering sheds;And schoolgirl faces, pale and sweet,Gleam from the shawls about their heads.
Doors bang; and mother-voices callFrom alien homes; and rusty gatesAre slammed; and high above it all,The thunder grim reverberates.
And then, abrupt,--the rain! the rain!--The earth lies gasping; and the eyesBehind the streaming window-paneSmile at the trouble of the skies.
The highway smokes; sharp echoes ring;The cattle bawl and cowbells clank;And into town comes gallopingThe farmer's horse, with streaming flank.
The swallow dips beneath the eaves,And flirts his plumes and folds his wings;And under the catawba leavesThe caterpillar curls and clings.
The bumble-bee is pelted downThe wet stem of the hollyhock;And sullenly, in spattered brown,The cricket leaps the garden walk.
Within, the baby claps his handsAnd crows with rapture strange and vague;Without, beneath the rosebush standsA dripping rooster on one leg.
Words in this poem
- barefooted a.
- Having the feet bare.
- scud v. i.
- To move swiftly; especially, to move as if driven forward by something. [Dan. skyde to shoot, shove, push, akin to skud shot, gunshot, a shoot, young bough, and to E. shoot. sq. root159. See Shoot.]
- schoolgirl n.
- A girl belonging to, or attending, a school.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- bawl v. i.
- To cry out with a loud, full sound; to cry with vehemence, as in calling or exultation; to shout; to vociferate. [Icel. baula to low, bellow, as a cow; akin to Sw. böla; cf. AS bellan, G. bellen to bark, E. bellow, bull.]
- clank n.
- A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. [Akin to clink, and of imitative origin; cf. G. klang sound, D. klank. Cf. Clang.]
- galloping a.
- Going at a gallop; progressing rapidly; as, a galloping horse.
- catawba n.
- A well known light red variety of American grape.
- hollyhock n.
- A species of Althæa (A. rosea), bearing flowers of various colors; -- called also rose mallow. [OE. holihoc; holi holy + hoc mallow, AS. hoc; cf. W. hocys mallows, hocys bendigaid hollyhock, lit., blessed mallow. Prob. so named because brought from the Hol]
- claps v. t.
- Variant of Clasp
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- rooster n.
- The male of the domestic fowl; a cock. [U.S.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Sudden Shower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Riley Child-Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #9777; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Whitcomb Riley, A Sudden Shower, in Riley Child-Rhymes (1890), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9777, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-child-rhymes/a-sudden-shower.html, id L25065.
Form and metre
A Sudden Shower is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ABAB streetA · shedsB · sweetA · headsB
- 2 ABAB callA · gatesB · allA · reverberatesB
- 3 ABAB rainA · eyesB · paneA · skiesB
- 4 ABAB ringA · clankB · gallopingA · flankB
- 5 ABAB eavesA · wingsB · leavesA · clingsB
- 6 ABAB downA · hollyhockB · brownA · walkB
- 7 A-A- handsA · vague · standsA · leg
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Barefooted boys scud up the street | 8 | /·˘····· |
| Or skurry under sheltering sheds; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And schoolgirl faces, pale and sweet, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Gleam from the shawls about their heads. | 8 | ········ |
| Doors bang; and mother-voices call | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| From alien homes; and rusty gates | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are slammed; and high above it all, | 8 | ········ |
| The thunder grim reverberates. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| And then, abrupt,--the rain! the rain!-- | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The earth lies gasping; and the eyes | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Behind the streaming window-pane | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Smile at the trouble of the skies. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The highway smokes; sharp echoes ring; | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The cattle bawl and cowbells clank; | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| And into town comes galloping | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The farmer's horse, with streaming flank. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The swallow dips beneath the eaves, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And flirts his plumes and folds his wings; | 8 | ········ |
| And under the catawba leaves | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The caterpillar curls and clings. | 8 | ·/˘·˘··· |
| The bumble-bee is pelted down | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The wet stem of the hollyhock; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And sullenly, in spattered brown, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The cricket leaps the garden walk. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Within, the baby claps his hands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And crows with rapture strange and vague; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Without, beneath the rosebush stands | 8 | ·····/·· |
| A dripping rooster on one leg. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
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