It portrays the theme of hope of people for the rain to come so that their crops will grow especially during droughts. They have been praying very hard and finally God answers their prayers.

1. By Muhammad Haji Salleh

2. Name Muhammad Haji Salleh
Date of Birth 26 March 1942
Place of Birth Taiping, Perak
Education Obtained Ph. D. in Comparative
Literature in 1973 at universities
of Singapore, Malaya and
Michigan, USA,
Current Post Professor of Literature at the
Science University of Malaysia

3. Name Muhammad Haji Salleh
Awards ASEAN Literary Award (1977),
Malaysian National Literary Award
(1991),
S.E.A. Write Award (1997),
MASTERA Award (2002)
Published
works
more than 10 collections of
poetry:
Time and its People (1978),
Beyond the Archipelago (1994),
Rowing Down Two Rivers (2000)

4. suddenly they came, the mid-year padi rains,
falling slanted among the dried lalang
and into the branch-drains of the brown canals;
the big regular drops falling at their own rhythm
became the overwhelming sound of an insistent tempo.

5. it woke up the child in the sarong cradle
and the old resting father.
water has come. he looked out into the sheet of rain
descending along the atap eaves.
the rivulets carried the flattened straw
and the dust of the drought,
in their dark grey flowing threads
slithering to the depressions in the ground.
Poem: Rain (stanza 2)

6. Poem: Rain (stanza 3)
thin dry ducks quacked
splashed by the strange rain
and chickens ran from under the trees.

7. Poem: Rain (stanza 4)
it was the beginning of an answer,
pak usin’s dark skinned muscles quivered.
rain slapped the leaves and bent the young coconuts,
shook the drought of its death-dust
and swept the remains of harvest rubbish.

8. for this season they collected hopes again,
carried them under cover from the heat to this day,
the rain fell and wetted their praying throats.

9. 1. Nature
-dependence of man on
nature for survival.
-highlight the importance
of nature to human
beings, thus, it indicate
the power of nature as
source of living.

10. Theme
2. Hope
-rain is the hope of the
people who needs water
for their crops during
drought.The people are
desperate and pray for
rain to fall.

11. Compare and contrast
two poems on similar
themes using i-think
maps.

12. Write a short paragraph
to express relevance of
poem to environment/
lives/ world