I. <br /> <br />The rain! the rain! the rain! <br />It gushed from the skies and streamed <br />Like awful tears; and the sick man thought <br />How pitiful it seemed! <br />And he turned his face away, <br />And stared at the wall again, <br />His hopes nigh dead and his heart worn out. <br />O the rain! the rain! the rain! <br /> <br />II. <br /> <br />The rain! the rain! the rain! <br />And the broad stream brimmed the shores; <br />And ever the river crept over the reeds <br />And the roots of the sycamores: <br />A corpse swirled by in a drift <br />Where the boat had snapt its chain-- <br />And a hoarse-voiced mother shrieked and raved. <br />O the rain! the rain! the rain! <br /> <br />III. <br /> <br />The rain! the rain! the rain!-- <br />Pouring, with never a pause, <br />Over the fields and the green byways-- <br />How beautiful it was! <br />And the new-made man and wife <br />Stood at the window-pane <br />Like two glad children kept from school.-- <br />O the rain! the rain! the rain!<br /><br />James Whitcomb Riley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rain-88/
