A rain shower moves through a city, and the speaker catches it as a rush of quick, half-abstract impressions. Rain flickers on wet pavement, umbrellas suddenly open and bend like pale blossoms, and wind arrives with a metallic, clattering energy. The storm blows in from open roads and hills, carrying the scent and movement of apple blossoms and translucent leaves into the streets. Gradually the energy softens: the rain becomes lazy and uneven, dripping from eaves. The mood is not sad or dramatic but alert, fresh, and slightly dreamlike, as if the speaker is trying to hold onto a passing moment of movement, light, and spring air. It feels less like a story than a brief, shimmering glimpse of ordinary weather made strange and lovely.
Irradiations VII — Summary
Flickering of incessant rain On flashing pavements: Sudden scurry of umbrellas: Bending, recurved blossoms of the storm.
The winds came clanging and clattering From long white highroads whipping in ribbons up summits: They strew upon the city gusty wafts of appleblossom, And the rustling of innumerable translucent leaves.
Uneven tinkling, the lazy rain Dripping from the eaves.