There Will Come Soft Rains

The story contains a central allusion or reference to another literary text. Toward the end of the story, one of the voices in the house reads Sara Teasdale’s poem “There Will Be Soft Rains.” The poem, originally published in 1918, describes a world without humanity in a positive light. The poem catalogs several peaceful scenes from nature and says of the natural world that “Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, / If mankind perished utterly” (253).

While the story is somewhat ambiguous in tone regarding the conflict between humanity and nature, Teasdale’s poem takes a clear stance. The poem suggests that the world would be more peaceful without humans and their wars. Given the implication that the humans who lived in the house were killed in a nuclear war, the story suggests that this vision has come to pass. The house’s need to protect itself from wildlife suggests that the natural world has fared better than the human one in this world after all.

The story personifies several nonhuman characters by giving them human characteristics. The personification of the house and, to a lesser extent, nature is one of the story’s most readily apparent literary devices.