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jrsdav 31 minutes ago

"There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone."

- Sara Teasdale, 1918

Didn't see the inspiration for Bradbury mentioned here. I love this poem. There's also a great song-rendition of it by The Three D's, a folk group popular in the 50's.

state_less 24 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Nice imagery, but feels like a bit of a put down of humanity. Humans are also nature, let's not leave ourselves out.

https://youtu.be/mTEUrdKehSg

the_af 19 minutes ago | parent [-]

It is really an anti-war poem rather than anti-humanity or about nature in general. Sara Teasdale was forced to write her sentiments obliquely. From Wikipedia:

> "The Sedition Act of 1918 enacted two months before the original publication of "There Will Come Soft Rains" made it a criminal offense to "willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States" and forced Teasdale to express her opposition to World War I "obliquely" in what might appear to be a pastoral poem."

If you think about it, Bradbury's story is also anti-war.

vulcan01 19 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

This poem is in the short story.