“There Will Come Soft Rains”
(Inspired by Sara Teasdale’s poem)
[Verse 1]
There will come soft rains, the earth will breathe,
The scent of soil in the evening breeze.
Swallows will circle with shimmering sound,
Drifting like echoes above the ground.
[Verse 2]
Frogs in the pools will sing through the night,
Wild plum trees trembling, bathed in white.
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.
[Chorus]
And not one will know, not one will see,
Not one will mourn for you or me.
No bird, no tree, will pause to say,
That we have vanished, gone away.
[Verse 3]
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly.
The rivers will run, the sky will stay wide,
The world won’t weep if we fade with the tide.
[Bridge] (Soft, haunting pause… then rise again)
And Spring herself, when she wakes at dawn,
Will scarcely know that we are gone…
[Final Chorus] (Dramatic, then fades into quietness)
And not one will know, not one will see,
Not one will mourn for you or me.
No bird, no tree, will pause to say,
That we have vanished, gone away.
Michael Forty