# It Rains explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Edward Thomas.

## What happens

The speaker walks alone in a rain-soaked orchard, finding a paradoxical happiness in solitude while mourning the loss of a shared past. The rain and the ghostly parsley flower evoke memories of a lover, and the speaker acknowledges that such joy can never be recaptured except in solitary reflection.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Loss

The speaker mourns the lost intimacy of walking and kissing in the rain, knowing that joy will never return.

### Solitude and Reflection

The speaker finds a bittersweet happiness in searching the wilderness alone, while the past hovers like a ghostly flower.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker walks alone in the orchard, reflecting on past love and present solitude.

## Key lines

> And I am nearly as happy as possible / To search the wilderness in vain though well, / To think of two walking, kissing there, / Drenched, yet forgetting the kisses of the rain

I am almost completely happy searching the empty orchard, even though I know it is futile, because it lets me imagine two people walking and kissing, soaked but oblivious to the rain.

_The speaker finds joy in memory and imagination, even as the present remains solitary._

> Sad, too, to think that never, never again, / Unless alone, so happy shall I walk / In the rain.

It is also sad to realize that I will never again walk in the rain with such happiness, except when I am by myself.

_The speaker acknowledges that the shared joy of the past is irrecoverable, and only solitary walks can now evoke a similar feeling._

> The past hovering as it revisits the light.

The past lingers in the air, returning to the light like a ghost.

_The parsley flower becomes a symbol of memory, suspended and ghostly, as the past revisits the present._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters/it-rains
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters