Rain Flashcards
who wrote this poem
Edward Thomas
what is the poem about
About his time during the trench wars and how much that affected him, what it was like for the soldiers fighting in it.
Why is the word rain repeated 3 times in the first line
it tells you the focus is on that word and that it is important as well as that it tells you a lot about the setting: it’s quiet and simple.
what does “Blessed are the dead” show
He wants to die but as well as that he implies living in his situation was worse than dying and for him dying was the way out of that horrible life from pain and suffering.
what is implied by “whom once i loved”
It shows that either he has forgotten what his loved ones were like because he has been struggling so much or they are gone and not in his life anymore meaning he is all alone and has pretty much nobody but himself.
what does “born into this solitude” mean
It means he was born into remoteness and he always feels alone and that is significant because it shows he feels like he couldn’t have changed it anyway because he was born into it and it was like his destiny.
Edward’s life story
He was a history student at oxford and was then enlisted in the british army in WW1 and later died during the battle of Arras in 1917.
what does he relate to by writing “love of death”
He is implying he doesn’t have anything to live for and he just wants to die. He is struggling and in his mind death is the way out and metaphorically speaking his life was good before the rain.
what does the contradiction of “life” and “death” signify
He says he was alive before the rain but now he wants to be dead. He shows the line between being alive and dead, he mentioned how he is physically alive but mentally dead.
