This week’s choice is “The Rainy Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and my reasons for choosing it are probably obvious to everyone!
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Poem 453. The Rainy Day
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
In this poem, Longfellow likens a day of rainy weather to the depression we may all feel at times.
The first stanza describes one of those days which we all seem to have had one time or another: the rain beating down incessantly outside and the wind howling, the few surviving plants in the garden clinging on to their supports while the trees shed their leaves. Darkness seems to come early and our spirits wilt.
The second stanza draws a parallel between meteorological depression and spiritual depression—life can also seem to be “cold, and dark, and dreary” at times, especially when we are alone and our optimism wanes; it is easy to feel that one’s days are as dark and dreary as wintry weather.
The third stanza seeks hope in the old maxim that every cloud has a silver lining—the sun still shines even behind the darkest, greyest skies. We all suffer the rainy days, physical and spiritual, and “Some days must be dark and dreary.”
I have had low days where my spirits have sunk into my boots and it is hard to believe that the sun is shining somewhere. It is a real effort to remember that “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise”, to quote from Les Misérables, but I’ve now found my sunshine and the days are bright and cheery rather than dark and dreary.
This poem is the original source for the phrase “Into each life some rain must fall”, which became the title of a 1944 Ink Spots song featuring Bill Kenny and Ella Fitzgerald.
I have chosen the musical setting of the poem by Jesse Gilbert.