Analysis of the Poem “Because I could not stop for death”
There Will Come Soft Rains
The short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” from “The Martian Chronicles” written by Ray Bradbury after the second world war deals with a futuristic house which is uninhabited due to a nuclear catastrophe and completely controlled by a computer so that everything works fully automatically. Furthermore it is about uncontrollable nature which cuts its own path - no matter whether there is mankind any longer - and causes a fire to break out which destroys the house completely.
The story begins with the introduction of the computer controlled house that cooks for the residents and cleans itself, and a corresponding voice clock which informs the non-existent inhabitants about date, time and ordinary events like birthdays, anniversaries or what they have to do during the course of the day. The happenings take place between the 4th and the 5th of August 2026 in the city of Allendale, California. On the morning of 4th August the house which is the only one left standing in a ruined city starts to do some daily tasks as it prepares breakfast, does the dishes and sends out tiny robot mice as cleaning animals. At the house’s west face everything is burnt black except for five places which illustrate silhouettes of a man and a woman doing some gardening work and two children playing with a ball. At noon the family’s bony dog enters the house and dies of starvation after he recognizes that there is no one left who cares about him anymore. After dinner time the house automatically reads out Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poem by Sara Teasdale which is about the fact that nature goes on no matter what has happened or whether mankind exists any longer. In the evening at ten o’clock a tree bough falls into the kitchen where a fire is burning on the stone hearth and causes a blaze which destroys the house utterly. The house tries to save itself while it shuts all the doors and sprinkles water from the ceilings but fails for the reason that the fire
The short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” from “The Martian Chronicles” written by Ray Bradbury after the second world war deals with a futuristic house which is uninhabited due to a nuclear catastrophe and completely controlled by a computer so that everything works fully automatically. Furthermore it is about uncontrollable nature which cuts its own path - no matter whether there is mankind any longer - and causes a fire to break out which destroys the house completely.
The story begins with the introduction of the computer controlled house that cooks for the residents and cleans itself, and a corresponding voice clock which informs the non-existent inhabitants about date, time and ordinary events like birthdays, anniversaries or what they have to do during the course of the day. The happenings take place between the 4th and the 5th of August 2026 in the city of Allendale, California. On the morning of 4th August the house which is the only one left standing in a ruined city starts to do some daily tasks as it prepares breakfast, does the dishes and sends out tiny robot mice as cleaning animals. At the house’s west face everything is burnt black except for five places which illustrate silhouettes of a man and a woman doing some gardening work and two children playing with a ball. At noon the family’s bony dog enters the house and dies of starvation after he recognizes that there is no one left who cares about him anymore. After dinner time the house automatically reads out Mrs. McClellan’s favorite poem by Sara Teasdale which is about the fact that nature goes on no matter what has happened or whether mankind exists any longer. In the evening at ten o’clock a tree bough falls into the kitchen where a fire is burning on the stone hearth and causes a blaze which destroys the house utterly. The house tries to save itself while it shuts all the doors and sprinkles water from the ceilings but fails for the reason that the fire