Poetry · Chapter
What Will They Do? explained
The speaker reflects on their own insignificance and the world's indifference to their absence, using the metaphor of rain that sustains flowers and grass yet does not need them.
What happens
The speaker reflects on their own insignificance and the world's indifference to their absence, using the metaphor of rain that sustains flowers and grass yet does not need them. A moment of doubt arises when the speaker wonders if they might have nourished something priceless in others, only to be dismissed by a careless laugh.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Rising action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional peak occurs when the speaker, despite physical pain from the storm, experiences a transcendent m…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Solitude and Reflection
The speaker's solitary meditation on their own absence and the fleeting nature of connection.
- The Cycle of Life and Death
The rain metaphor underscores the interdependence and eventual separation of life forms.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker contemplates their own mortality and the indifference of the world.
Key passages
“What will they do when I am gone? It is plain That they will do without me as the rain Can do without the flowers and the grass That profit by it and must perish without.”
It is clear that others will continue without me, just as rain continues regardless of the flowers and grass that depend on it.
The speaker asserts their own dispensability.
“But what if I in them as they in me Nourished what has great value and no price?”
But what if we have mutually nurtured something invaluable and intangible?
A moment of doubt about the possibility of hidden mutual significance.
“Until that one turned back and lightly laughed.”
Until one person looked back and laughed casually, dismissing the thought.
The speaker's hope is undercut by a dismissive gesture.
