There Will Come Soft Rains
SSAA and piano (5:30)
Date of composition: 2019
Sara Teasdale wrote and published this poem in 1918 in the midst of World War I and a terrible Spanish Flu pandemic that killed millions of people. Just over 100 years later, we presently face and continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic which has taken so many loved ones from us. This poem describes a scene in which humans have become extinct and nature undergoes restoration and renewal despite the war-torn and desolate landscape.
While it is very easy to focus on the poem’s dark undertones, I wanted to draw out its message of hope, especially in this time. Teasdale lived a troubled and difficult life, but many of her writings are lyrical and beautiful. Knowing this, I would like to believe that her poem’s theme of renewal was important to her; she yearned for it in her own life.
The chaos, destruction, and hardship in this world is just a cycle, and while I subtly acknowledge its presence in the piece, I pray that the overall message of hope resonates with anybody who teaches, sings, and listens to this piece.
This selection is published by Hinshaw Music under the André J. Thomas Choral Series.
There Will Come Soft Rains
(War Time)
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.
–Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)