Lyric Poem · Nature
The Rainy Day
1The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
2It rains, and the wind is never weary;
3The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
4But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
5And the day is dark and dreary.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“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.
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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.