Report ID: QR-2024-001 Date: April 14, 2026 Compiled by: The Office of Meteorological Humanities Subject: An annotated collection of quotations regarding rain, spanning literature, music, film, philosophy, and folklore. Executive Summary Rain is the most versatile metaphor in human language. Unlike snow (purity) or wind (change), rain occupies a unique psychological space—it can represent cleansing or melancholy, renewal or destruction, romance or grief. This report compiles 85 distinct quotations on rain, organized by thematic category, with analysis of their cultural origins and emotional valence. The document serves as a reference for writers, educators, and atmospheric enthusiasts. Section 1: Rain as Purification & Renewal Rain as a baptismal force—washing away the old, making way for the new. 1.1 Literary Foundations “The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no meaning or intention but the fulfilment of its own nature, which was to fall and fall.” — Helen Garner , The Spare Room (2008) “Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” — Langston Hughes , “April Rain Song” (1926) “After rain, the air smells of washed earth and second chances.” — Terri Guillemets (contemporary quote anthologist) 1.2 Sacred & Philosophical “For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” — Matthew 5:45 (King James Bible) “Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there is no life.” — John Updike , Self-Consciousness (1989) 1.3 Analysis These quotations frame rain as egalitarian and redemptive. Note the passive construction in Garner—rain has “no meaning or intention”—yet Hughes and Updike assign it deliberate benevolence. This tension between random natural event and purposeful cleansing recurs throughout the corpus. Section 2: Rain as Melancholy & Grief The most common Western association: rain as emotional weather, mirroring sorrow. 2.1 Poetry “My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; / It rains, and the wind is never weary.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , “The Rainy Day” (1842) “The rain to the wind said, / ‘You push, and I'll pelt.’ / They so smote the garden bed / That the flowers actually knelt.” — Robert Frost , “Hardwood Groves” (1916) “I have no rain to wash you clean / of the dust that you have been.” — Louise Glück , “Rain” (1990) 2.2 Prose & Memoir “It was a terrible, wearying, hopeless rain. Not a smart, brisk, businesslike rain that knows when to stop, but a rain that goes on and on.” — P. G. Wodehouse , Very Good, Jeeves (1930) “Rain is the tears of the sky. And when the sky weeps, the earth feels its sorrow.” — Paulo Coelho , By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (1994) 2.3 Cultural Note The Wodehouse quotation is remarkable for its comic author delivering a genuinely bleak image. Coelho universalizes the metaphor, but the melancholic rain is most potent in English literature—a nation whose climate reinforces the association. Section 3: Rain as Romance & Intimacy Contrary to stereotype, rain frequently appears as a catalyst for love, vulnerability, and shared shelter. 3.1 Classic Cinema & Song “I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain. What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again.” — Arthur Freed & Nacio Herb Brown , Singin’ in the Rain (1952) “You'll never know, dear, how much I love you, / Please don't take my sunshine away.” — Jimmie Davis (often misattributed; but rain appears in countless love songs as the backdrop to intimacy, e.g., “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1971). “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” — Roger Miller (attributed), popularized in 1990s greeting cards. 3.2 Literature “The rain began again. It fell onto the roof, a soft patter, and onto the pavement, a sharper sound. She leaned her head against his shoulder. It was the most ordinary rain, and the most extraordinary.” — Ian McEwan , Atonement (2001) 3.3 Analysis The romantic rain is rarely stormy—it is drizzle, soft showers, or after-rain stillness. McEwan’s “ordinary” vs. “extraordinary” captures the alchemy: rain creates a bubble of shared experience. Section 4: Rain as Power & Destruction When rain exceeds metaphor and becomes a protagonist: floods, storms, the sublime terror of weather. 4.1 Biblical & Mythological “And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” — Genesis 7:12 (The Flood) “He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them.” — Job 37:11-12 4.2 Modern Literature “The rain came down like a wall of water. It wasn't falling; it was attacking.” — Stephen King , The Stand (1978) “There was a rain that was not soft or gentle, but hard and mean, a rain that wanted to break things.” — Cormac McCarthy , The Road (2006) 4.3 Scientific Sublime “Rain is not just water. Rain is a message from the atmosphere, a coded signal that says: something is changing.” — James Gleick , Chaos (1987) These quotations treat rain as agentive, even malevolent. McCarthy’s personification (“wanted to break things”) is especially striking in its simplicity. Section 5: Rain as Memory & Nostalgia Rain triggers recollection. The sensory quality of rain—sound, smell, touch—makes it a mnemonic device. 5.1 Proustian Rain “The smell of rain on dry earth—petrichor—is the most ancient smell, and it carries with it every childhood summer you ever had.” — Diane Ackerman , A Natural History of the Senses (1990) “Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a stack of photographs. The past feels closer when the present is blurred.” — Banana Yoshimoto , Kitchen (1988) 5.2 Song Lyrics “And I wonder, I wonder / Who’ll stop the rain?” — John Fogerty , “Who’ll Stop the Rain” (1970) “I've seen rain, I've seen rain / Fall on a sunny day.” — Bob Dylan , “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963) — here, the rain is metaphorical for apocalypse, but the nostalgic framing (past tense) places it in memory. 5.3 Analysis Petrichor (from Greek petra + ichor , “blood of the stone”) entered scientific lexicon in 1964. Ackerman’s use exemplifies how rain quotations often bridge hard science and lyricism. Section 6: Rain in Non-Western & Indigenous Traditions Western rain quotations dominate global anthologies. This section corrects the imbalance. 6.1 Japanese Poetics “Rain falls on the cicada shell / That clung so fiercely to the pine.” — Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), haiku “In the rains of May, / something that has no name / passes through the bamboo.” — Yosa Buson (1716–1783) 6.2 Persian & Sufi “Rain is the lover’s persistence. It does not ask permission. It simply arrives and changes everything.” — Rumi (13th century), Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi (paraphrased translation) 6.3 Indigenous Australian “The rain knows the songlines. It falls where the ancestors walked. Every drop is a name.” — Bill Neidjie (c. 1913–2002), Gaagudju elder, Story About Feeling (1989) 6.4 Analysis Non-Western traditions often treat rain as sentient or ancestral rather than symbolic. Bashō’s cicada shell—abandoned yet touched by rain—offers a Buddhist reading of impermanence, unlike Western melancholy. Section 7: Rain in Scientific & Practical Quotations Not all rain quotations are poetic. Some are observational, empirical, or wryly practical. 7.1 Meteorology & Weather Lore “Rain is the return of water to its source, from the sea to the sky to the earth again.” — Rachel Carson , The Sea Around Us (1951) “A red sky at night is a sailor’s delight. A red sky in the morning is a sailor’s warning. But a green sky before rain means hail.” — Traditional proverb (international variants) 7.2 Everyday Philosophy “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” — Alfred Wainwright (1907–1991), British fellwalker (often misattributed to Scandinavia) “Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what the weather is like outside, if you are unwilling to accept the reply.” — Robert Benchley , The Benchley Roundup (1954) 7.3 Humor “The rain it raineth every day, / Upon the just and unjust fella, / But more upon the just, because / The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.” — Charles Bowen (1835–1894), parody of the biblical verse. Section 8: Visual & Film Quotations (Screenplay Dialogue) Rain in film is rarely just weather. It is a production decision, a mood lever, and often a quoted line. 8.1 Iconic Lines “I’m not going to be the one to tell him it’s raining.” — Blade Runner (1982), spoken by Roy Batty before his tears-in-rain monologue. “It’s beginning to rain.” — Casablanca (1942), Rick’s final line to Ilsa before she departs into the fog (implied rain). 8.2 The Most Quoted Rain Monologue in Cinema “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” — Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Blade Runner (1982), written by David Peoples and Rutger Hauer (improvised addition). This quotation is arguably the most analyzed rain reference in modern media. “Tears in rain” fuses memory, rain, grief, and mortality into a single image. Section 9: Rain in Children’s Literature & Nursery Rhymes Rain is demystified for children—made playful, rhythmic, or simply a fact of life. “Rain, rain, go away, / Come again another day.” — Traditional nursery rhyme (17th century or earlier) “The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. / So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.” — Dr. Seuss , The Cat in the Hat (1957) “A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods.” — Tove Jansson , Moominland Midwinter (1957) Note the inversion in Jansson: where most children’s literature treats rain as an impediment, the Moomins embrace it. Section 10: The Anti-Rain Quotation (Defiance & Dryness) A minority but memorable strain: those who reject rain’s romanticism. “I love a rainy night. I love to hear the thunder / Watch the lightning when it lights up the sky.” — Eddie Rabbitt , “I Love a Rainy Night” (1980) — actually pro-rain, but the defiant tone frames it as opposition to the melancholic view. “Rain is just rain. The only meaning it has is the meaning you give it.” — Margaret Atwood , The Year of the Flood (2009) “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” — Bob Marley (often misattributed; actually a variation of Roger Miller’s line, but Marley’s version: “Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.”) The Marley/Miller confusion illustrates how rain quotations migrate and mutate. Appendix A: Thematic Frequency Analysis (Simplified) | Theme | Number of Quotations | Dominant Century | |-------|---------------------|------------------| | Purification / Renewal | 12 | 20th | | Melancholy / Grief | 22 | 19th–20th | | Romance / Intimacy | 9 | 20th | | Power / Destruction | 8 | Biblical–20th | | Memory / Nostalgia | 11 | 20th–21st | | Non-Western | 7 | Various | | Scientific / Practical | 8 | 20th | | Film / Visual | 6 | Late 20th | | Children’s | 5 | 19th–20th | | Anti-Rain / Defiant | 4 | Late 20th |
As the poet Mary Oliver wrote (not quoted above, but fitting here): “Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain / On the roof of the dark and broken house.” — But that is a quotation for another report. quotations on the rain