Still Falls The Rain Poem by Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell

Still Falls The Rain

Rating: 3.2


Still falls the Rain---
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss---
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.

Still falls the Rain
With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat
In the Potter's Field, and the sound of the impious feet

On the Tomb:
Still falls the Rain

In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain
Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.

Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us---
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.

Still falls the Rain---
Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man's wounded Side:
He bears in His Heart all wounds,---those of the light that died,
The last faint spark
In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark,
The wounds of the baited bear---
The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat
On his helpless flesh... the tears of the hunted hare.

Still falls the Rain---
Then--- O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune---
See, see where Christ's blood streames in the firmament:
It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree

Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart
That holds the fires of the world,---dark-smirched with pain
As Caesar's laurel crown.

Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain---
"Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee."

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
* Sunprincess * 02 June 2014

.............a wonderful poem.....so nicely it flows like the rain.....nicely written...

6 1 Reply
Montague Gammon III 05 February 2020

Well, the rain of this poem was the rain of German bombs upon London, so " nicely it flows" might not be the best choice of words.

0 0
Mcgeorge Jeremiah 01 September 2017

Amazing, just amazing... Am... Speechlessly just gazing...

5 1 Reply
Peter Layton 01 December 2004

there is an excellent setting of this poem to music by Benjamin Britten, I highly recommend it.

5 1 Reply
David Morss 12 July 2009

Yes, it's a great setting, by one of the masters of setting English poetry to music. Check out his other canticles too... as well as the settings in the Spring Symphony and Les Illminations

5 1 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 28 March 2024

I cannot find this poem, AT FOUR IN THE MORNING, so I write my comment here

0 0 Reply
Montague Gammon III 05 February 2020

And set to music by the half-forgotten Irish composer Miss Ina Boyle in 1948.

1 1 Reply
Aria KeInek 04 November 2019

this is amazing I read this too my teacher for a project and she gave me 100! ! WOOP WOOP

2 1 Reply
Ray A Burleigh 30 May 2019

This wonderful poem, broken like the Christian myth it belies, rings like a great bell, never ashamed, always full of exhausted pain. Should be read once or twice a year in every church you can find.

2 2 Reply
Dominic Windram 18 April 2019

One of my favourite poems...multi layered and abounding with well chosen biblical references. It speaks volumes about the human condition

1 1 Reply
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