THE RAIN

THE RAIN

Translated by Arthur W. Ryder

The rain advances like a king

In awful majesty;

Hear, O dearest, how his thunders ring

Like royal drums, and see.

His lightning-banners wave; a cloud

For elephant he rides,

And finds his welcome from the crowd 

Of lovers and of brides.

The clouds,a mighty army, march

With a drumlike thundering

And stretch upon the rainbow's arch

The lightning's flashing string;

The cruel arrows of the rain

Smite them who live, apart

From whom the love, with stringing pain,

And pierce them to the heart.

Arthur W. Ryder was a professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley. Ryder was born on March 8, 1877 at Oberlin, Ohio in the United States. He had his early education at Ann Arbor, Michigan and the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in June 1894, to join Harvard University. He got his A.B. degree from Harvard in June 1897. After teaching Latin and literature at Andover for a year, he went to Germany for graduate studies. He studied at the University of Berlin and the University of Leipzig, from which he got the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1901, with adissertation on the Rbhus in the Ṛgveda. He was an instructor in Sanskrit at Harvard University from 1902 until January 1906, when he moved to the University of California at Berkeley, as an instructor in Sanskrit and German. He became an Instructor in Sanskrit only later in the same year, became Assistant Professor in 1908, Associate Professor in 1919, and Professor in 1925. From his arrival at Berkeley until his death, Sanskrit was a separate department with Ryder as chairman and sole member, after which it was absorbed into the Department of Classics.He was a member of the American Oriental Society and the American Philological Association. It is also said that he was at one time ranked one of the two best chess players on the Pacific Coast.

Rhyme Scheme:

1st Stanza-  A A, B B, C C, D D

2nd Stanza- E E, A A, F F, G G

Figurative language:

Simile- The rain advances like a king
            Like a royal drums, and see.

Imagery:

TO MY NATIVE LAND

TO MY NATIVE LAND

Trinidad Tarrosa Subido

Beloved Land, let me explain to thee

Why thought of nearingdeath provokes a pain

'Tis not that I again shall never see

These Orient Isles of kindly sun and rain;

Not that the visionary spirit must

Forego the wonders she had fondly schemed;

Not that the flesh must soon succumb to dust,

With love's avowals only half redeemed;

O my beloved land, whose air I breathe,

Whose bounty is my daily sustenance,

How sad to leave with nothing to bequeath,

Thy weal to serve, thy glory to enhance.

How shameful, finally to dare to rest

My thanksfulness dust upon thy noble breast!

Trinidad Tarrosa-Subido was born in Socorro oriental mindoro, where her father worked as a star . After her father's death, she and her mother returned to Manila in 1917. She graduated from Manila East High School, and in 1929, she took the civil service examination in order to work in the Bureau of Education, and passed it with a grade of 97 percent, the highest then on record. She enrolled as a working student at the University of the Philippines at Padre Faura (commonly known as UP Manila) in 1932 and met her husband Abelardo Subido. She became a member of the UP Writers Club and contributed her sonnets.She got married in 1936 and graduated magna cum laude the following year. She then began to work at the Institute of National Language. In 1940, she published Tagalog Phonetics and Orthography, which she co-authored with Virginia Gamboa-Mendoza. In 1945, she and her husband published poems titled Two Voices, with an introduction by Salvador P. Lopez.After the war, the Subidos put up a daily newspaper, The Manila Post, which closed in 1947 and made her a freelance writer. She then became editor of Kislap-Graphic and Philippine Home Economics Journal.She retired in 1971, and in 1984, she was invited by the Women in Media Now to write the introduction to Filipina I, the first anthology consisting of works made exclusively by Filipino women. She was honored in 1991 by the Unyon ng Mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).

She died in 1994.

Analysis:

The author is sad to die not because she is afraid of being no more, but because the earth has given her everything she needed but she regret that the she has nothing to give to make it better.

Rhyme Scheme: 

A B, A B, C D, C D, E F, E F, G H

Meter:

10 11

Imagery:

I can image that the author is really a good person because she is not just thinking about herself but she is also thinking for the good of our nature. 

Summary:

The summary of this poem is that the author is thankful to the world and she is also thinking what can she do to make the earth good.