Lyric Poem · Nature
The Rainy Day
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
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“The Rainy Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — quilloak.com/poems/the-rainy-day
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Rainy Day
- Poet
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Length
- 15 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Love, Death & Loss
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 15 lines · 3 quintains
- Line length
- Lines run 8-10 syllables (median 9). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
- Refrain
- “It rains, and the wind is never weary;”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Rainy Day by henry-wadsworth-longfellow, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 fcbdf5edde6bdc41…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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