Voice of the Rain Extra Questions

Short Answer Type Questions

Q1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?

Ans. The two voices in the poem are the voice of the rain and the voice of the poet. The lines are “And who art thou? Said I ……..” and ‘I am the poem of Earth’.

Q2. What does the phrase ‘strange to tell’ mean?      

Ans. The phrase ‘strange to tell’ means that it is an unusual and extraordinary answer given by the rain drops to the poet who asked who ‘it was’.

Q3. What is the similarity between rain and music?

Ans. They both return to the place of their origin after fulfilling their tasks.

Q4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem?   

Ans. The poet explains that the rain drops in the form of water vapour rise up from land and sea and then descend again on the earth and dry land in order to wash it down and hence comes back to its origin. This is the cyclic movement explained by the poet.

Q5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?  

Ans. The last two lines are put within brackets because they do not form the voice of the rain or the poet. They only contain a general observation made by the poet about the course of a song.

Q6. What does the rain do to the things day and night?

Ans. The rain falls on the earth, and washes away the drought, it also helps the seeds to germinate and bring forth new life on the earth. Without it, all life on earth would become lifeless.

Q7. What answer did the rain give to the poet about its origin?

Ans. The rain answered that it was the poem of the earth. It rose eternally out of the land and bottomless sea into the sky. There its form changed but essence remained the same.

Q8. On what does the ‘rain descend’? What does it do to the things on which it falls?

Ans. The rain descends on droughts, atoms and dust particles on the surface of the earth. It also falls on everything that is on the earth. It gives life to the things on which it falls. The things that do not get rain remain like seeds latent and unborn.

Q9. ‘Behind the apparent simplicity, the poem hides a deep meaning’. What exactly does the poem convey to the reader?

Ans. The poem conveys that like a poem, the rain is also everlasting and has an unbreakable chain of life cycle. It rises from the earth, comes back to it. The song also issues from its birth place, wanders here and there, whether heeded to or not, returns with love to its own origin.