There Will Come Soft Rains

by Sara Teasdale

Written in 1920, There Will Come Soft Rains, one of the best known poems by Teasdale, is a lyrical poem about resilience, nature cleaning up a field after a battle. The poem raises the idea that nature would not care all if mankind were to become extinct. It inspired Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name.

An illustration for the story There Will Come Soft Rains by the author Sara Teasdale — Vincent van Gogh, Almond Blossom, 1890

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools, singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

There Will Come Soft Rains was featured as The Short Story of the Day on Mon, Nov 12, 2018

Featured in our collection of World War I Literature, Poetry for Students, and 100 Great Poems.

The poem inspired Ray Bradbury to write a short story sharing the same title, "There Will Come Soft Rains".

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Return to the Sara Teasdale Home Page, or . . . Read the next poem; The River