Poetry Analysis by Christine Lukhelo Williams

 Analysis by Christine Lukhelo Williams     

“Rain” by Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare is a New Zealand Maori writer and poet. This poem, “Rain”, is a simple but absolutely fantastic piece of text. He employs emotive language by the use of the senses of sound, taste, smell, and touch. The sense of sight is only felt imaginatively through ellipsis; so the does not rely on visual descriptions quite much. 

“I can hear you” - she can hear the rain ( rain, refers to the title)

“Making small holes” - the rain is digging up the ground with eroding (erosional) force in a scouring way at times.

“And I should know by the lick of you if I were blind” - The speaker is saying he knows how rain ‘tastes’. Also, the rain has been personified. He speaks to the rain as if it were a living being and the relationship they have is two-way kind. It is like they are in love and one is open to the other person. It is as if it has a face on which is a mouth and hence, a tongue to lick with. This person knows very well what the rain feels like and tastes like. There is intimacy and sensuality between them and this is a natural process of life. The rain makes him feel and be alive!

“The something special smell of you, when the sun cakes the ground “- there's a special smell of the rain? Much more it is the smell of the earth, and its earthy fragrance (or scent).

“The steady drum-roll sound when the wind drops” - When the rain falls on the ground, it makes a ‘drum-roll’ beat sound. There is rhythm, musical beat, and repetition. There is also alliteration.

“But if I should not hear, smell or feel, you would still define me, disperse me, wash over me rain” - if she didn't have those senses, she would still tell by going outside and recognise the rain on how it drops on her because it almost seems like there is a special bond between the speaker and the rain.

I would recommend this poem to my family because it does not take long to read. It uses multiple language features.

I learned that when you stay with someone or train for something together then you learn to know them really well and it becomes easier to recognise them even if they were in a different situation or locality... 

“Define” and “disperse”  - The rain makes someone wet, soaked, or drenched and therefore people will say, “You are wet…” That is to define someone. The word disperse refers to the way rain spreads and covers a large area. When it comes to the body, it spreads on the body surface and clothes.

The word ‘define’ also refers to the one being addressed as though they were a living being that has certain capacities or attributes. For example, consciousness, reason, self-consciousness, and morality. We call this, personification. It is as if the rain were a part of a culturally established form of a social relationship. In addition, it is like there is a kinship and a legal responsibility between the speaker and the rain.

With this poem, Tuwhare is telling us that something is amiss here; there is not enough poetry in people’s lives. I would definitely recommend it to others because it is a simplistic but sensitive poem.