# After Rain explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Edward Thomas.

## What happens

After a prolonged rain, the speaker observes the transformed landscape at dawn. The sun peers through a pale, choked day, revealing a new purple border along the road, fallen leaves scattered like little black fish, and twelve yellow apples hanging on a crab-tree. As the rain begins again, the scene is covered in uncountable crystals of water.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and the Seasons

The poem vividly describes the post-rain landscape, focusing on fallen leaves, bare branches, and the cycle of decay and renewal.

### The Cycle of Life and Death

The torn leaves, bare trees, and the twelve yellow apples on the crab-tree evoke the transition from autumn to winter and the ongoing cycle of growth and decay.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker observes the aftermath of rain and the details of the natural scene.

## Key lines

> The rain of a night and a day and a night Stops at the light Of this pale choked day.

After raining continuously for a night, a day, and another night, the rain finally ceases as the light of a pale, suffocating day breaks.

_Sets the temporal scene and mood of the poem._

> The leaflets out of the ash-tree shed Are thinly spread In the road, like little black fish, inlaid, As if they played.

The fallen ash-tree leaflets are scattered sparsely on the road, resembling tiny black fish set into the surface, as though they were at play.

_A striking simile that animates the fallen leaves._

> What hangs from the myriad branches down there So hard and bare Is twelve yellow apples lovely to see On one crab-tree.

What hangs from the many branches down there, so hard and bare, are twelve beautiful yellow apples on a single crab-apple tree.

_Highlights a specific, vivid detail of the scene._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters/after-rain
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters