SLPAD the small rain slightly OT poetic coda

[Mark Kohut]

This classic has been in the Norton Anthology, edited by TRP's teacher,
M.H. Abrams for edition after edition.
That might have made it canonical...(I've just used it in the catalog copy
of my Dylan course)

I have always read it just a little differently. Yes, it is about 'longing'
for rain in this way:
the writer knew the rain would come down when the wind brought it--it is
inevitable-- and

He wanted to be curled up in bed with his love when/as it did....

On Wed, Aug 16, 2023 at 4:22 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> https://interestingliterature.com/2016/02/10-classic-poems-about-rain-everyone-should-read/
>
> Westron wynde, when wyll thow blow
> The smalle rayne downe can rayne?
> Cryst yf my love were in my armys,
> And I yn my bed agayne!
>
>
> The precise meaning of the first two lines (especially ‘the small rain down
> can rain’) remains something of a mystery, but most scholars appear to
> favour the following meaning: western wind, when will you blow so that the
> small rain can rain down? Interpreted this way, the poem is about *longing
> *for
> rain, rather than escaping it
>
>
> - not completely topical, then, but it’s already lodged itself in the same
> arrondissement as “where are the snows of yesteryear?” & “Ich am of
> Irlaunde” - & no doubt will pop up again:
>
> Cryst yf my love were in my armys
> And I yn my bed agayne!
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>