How does melancholy darkness weep in rain on the roof poem?
Answers
1st Stanza:
When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres,
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a joy to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed,
And to listen to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!
In this stanza, the poet describes a rainy night. He says that all the stars of the sky have become invisible because they have been covered by clouds. Darkness usually has a negative connotation, and the poet makes no exception to this rule. He says that the darkness is making him sad and reflective, and the rain also seems to mirror his emotions as it looks like tears falling softly from human eyes. At this point, the only thing that can bring joy to the poet is to curl up with a pillow in the bed of a country cottage. Though the rooms of the cottage may be small and ill-equipped, the sound of raindrops can only transport him there for him to recover from his melancholic mood.
2nd Stanza:
Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their bright hues into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof.
In this stanza, the poet describes how the raindrops make the loudest sound as they fall on the shingles of the roof. Each sound that is made by the rain in this way is repeated the next instant by the beating of his heart. The things he has only been imagining now start to appear before his very eyes. As he is listening to the soft and continuous falling of the raindrops on his roof, all his memories are coming back to him, but they are not discrete and separated from each other. Instead all of his memories seem to have formed a patchwork by becoming entwined with one another.
3rd Stanza:
Now in fancy comes my mother,
As she used to, years agone,
To survey her darling dreamers,
Ere she left them till the dawn;
Oh! I see her bending o’er me,
As I list to this refrain
Which is played upon the shingles
By the patter of the rain.
In this stanza, the poet describes the first memory that he can actually identify among the patchwork that all his memories have formed by meshing together. He remembers how many years ago, in his childhood, his mother used to look down at him and his siblings as they were sleeping and having pleasant dreams. His mother would make a point to look at them every night, for she knew she would not see them again till the next morning. What the poet remembers more than anything is how his mother would bend down and watch over him in particular. These memories are evoked as he listens to the repetitive rhythm of the raindrops as they are falling on his roof.
4th Stanza:
Then my little seraph sister,
With her wings and waving hair,
And her bright-eyed cherub brother –
A serene, angelic pair! –
Glide around my wakeful pillow,
With their praise or mild reproof,
As I listen to the murmur
Of the soft rain on the roof.
In this stanza, the poet imagines his younger brother and younger sister as angels. It may seem unbelievable that he could think so highly of them, as if there was no sibling rivalry or mischievous fights among them at all. However, we should not assume that it was so. The fact is that memory often has a way of influencing our perceptions of the past. Though the poet may have fought often with his siblings, he only wants to remember them as their beautiful, sweet and innocent selves. He remembers his brother and his sister as they would gather round him, while his head was laying on the pillow, apparently prepared for sleep, but when his eyes were wide awake. At such times, his siblings would either chat with him cheerfully, praising him for some or other of his actions. However, sometimes they would also express disapproval over something the poet had said or done. This disapproval never upset the poet too much though, and so he remembers it as being mild. He remembers these things about his siblings as he is listening to the low sounds of the drizzle that is coming down on his roof.
5th Stanza:
And another comes to thrill me
With her eye’s delicious blue;
And forget I, gazing on her,
That her heart was all untrue:
I remember but to love her
With a rapture kin to pain,
And my heart’s quick pulses vibrate
To the patter of the rain.
Answer:
In this stanza, the poet describes a rainy night. He says that all the stars of the sky have become invisible because they have been covered by clouds. Darkness usually has a negative connotation, and the poet makes no exception to this rule.