Josie Whitehead’s Poems
If you’re going to copy the style of a poem (not plagiarise the poem), it is better to copy the style of the most famous writer if you really want to stand out in the crowd. I bet most of us have heard the famous words: “For the rain it raineth every day” – and for those of us in Britain especially, once it starts, we wonder when it will stop.
FOR THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERY DAY
by William Shakespeare
When that I was and a little tiny boy
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas, to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still 'had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.
A great while ago the world began,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that's all one, our play is done,
And we'll strive to please you every day.
This is the lyric farewell of Shakespeare’s fool, Feste, and brings us back from the performance of the play to the wind and the rain of every day. “But that’s all one” for today but the players will strive to please you every day.
In my shadow version of Shakespeare’s verse, written hundreds of years later, I see the rain beating down on my garden, day after day. When I visualize my childhood, it seemed as if it never rained – but I think that is just that I only remember the sunny days, playing in the garden. I also was innocent of the happenings in the world, even the Second World War, because my little world was all that mattered then. In teenage years you begin to open your eyes and question things – and this is when the rainy days can come in (the stormy thoughts appear). Adulthood reveals the true problems of the world, and the horrors of things that happen can cause the rain in your world to fall every day when you listen to the News. I also realize that mankind is responsible for the dreadful climate change that is taking place. “Oh what a shame” – It is a shame that we have to come to this realization as adults because there is bliss in innocence.
FOR THE RAIN IT RAINETH EVERY DAY
By Josie Whitehead
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Click photo to play
recorded reading
When that I was but a little tiny child
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain
The sky was blue, the gold sun smiled –
And the rain it raineth just some days.
Then I soon became a teenage lass
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain –
I soon discovered – ah, alas –
The rain it raineth on many a day.
I became an adult – what a shame!
With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain
Our climate’s changed and it’s we to blame.
Now the rain it raineth every day.
Copyright 2008