Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894 / Edinburgh / Scotland)

If this is the only poem I read in a day I wonder if it would make my day!

This poem should be psycho-analyzed.

Ian, send-ups of Victorian 'high seriousness': Oscar Wilde.

maybe this is one of his unfinished
works. i wonder what interrupted
his thought process...pain in his head.

this is funny because will I was reading this it started to rain.

Stevenson in one of his lighter moments with more than a touch of another great tongue-in-cheek writer, Lewis Carroll. It would be nice to see an anthology of other send-ups of Victorian 'high seriousness'. Maybe someone knows of one.

the rain seems to signify nothing but the water that falls from the heaven...it's literal..

but the poem somewhat implies the economic statuses....marxism...
its not common to put this different places in just one poem....

It falls on field and tree,
*******this line implies simple life, somewhat in the county....it creates an imagery wherein you could see no building except the fields and trees...and when it rains you could only watch the rain falling to the nature(field and tree)

It rains on the umbrellas here,
*******this line implies a life in town...in which the life is not so simple nor too extravagant....this line creates an imagery wherein people move around the community, or maybe in the market place, using umbrellas during rain.

And on the ships at sea
*******this line implies an extravagant life....the life of wealthy people...it creates an imagery wherein rich people are just sailing everywhere for a business matter and enjoying their lives in the ships listening to the orchestra or swaying with a dance song...

hope to make sense.....

Scottish rain surely? or maybe Samoan. He did spend a few years in Bournemouth though....maybe he was inspired by the rain there!

It is English rain, of course it falls everywhere and for a very long time. It rains everywhere, on everyone and everything, there is no escape, not even far out at sea. This is the point. There is no escape. It is umbrella weather and a lot of rain is falling. A good title might be... 'Rain'. Actually if the third line ended with held instead of here, the end rhyme would be stronger, and together with the alliteration of the other three lines, the poem would have a stronger vitality. Ah dare I say this, the other accomplished poets, posted their remarks, there is no printing process involved here.

Indeed rain falls over everything - tree or umbrella or ship! Rain is received by tree; rain is prevented by umbrella and rain cannot be done with by ship at sea! Three different things at three different places happening due to rain. It is thought provoking though looks to be simple and nothing!