role in ending the storm and not just appearing
after it is over.
The next line refers to rain for the first time,
making one wonder if there has been rain all
along or if it is only the sun’s attack that has
caused the rain to fall, which would be an unusual
version of a storm. The rain in this line is said to
be bleeding, which would be a natural result of
the biting by the sun in the previous line. It as if
the sun has caused the storm or the thunderclouds
to bleed, and the blood is the rain that falls.
The last line of this segment changes the
image of the rain from blood to honey. Now it
is not blood that falls but something gold colored,
such a color being the natural result of sunshine
reflecting off raindrops, Ford notes. Honey is, of
course, a much more positive image than blood.
There is something positive as well as negative in
this collision of sun and thunder. The second seg-
ment ends with a hyphen, the only punctuation
mark in these four lines.
Segment 3
This segment contains only one line, about the
earth fleeing from the thunder. The earth is called
sweet; possibly it is sweet from the honeyed rain
that has fallen on it from the storm, which might
make one wonder why the earth should thus flee
from the source of its sweetness. Ford wonders
why it is the thunder and not the destructive sun
that the earth should flee from. Of course, con-
ventionally a storm and thunder are portrayed as
dangerous, so it would be sensible to flee from
them, but this poem does not seem to be portray-
ing nature in conventional ways.
THEMESThe Beauties of Nature
William Wordsworth wrote about daffodils; John
Keats wrote an ode to autumn; Gerard Manley
Hopkins celebrated the beauty of the landscape in
‘‘Pied Beauty.’’ Many poets have written of the
beauties of nature. Toomer, too, sees beauty in
‘‘Storm Ending,’’ but unconventionally he sees it
in thunder, in the beautiful blossomlike clouds
seen overhead in a thunderstorm, and even in
the crackling of lightning—and then in the hon-
eyed rain that falls at the end of the thunderstorm.
This poem is less in the tradition of Wordsworth
and Keats and more like William Blake’s poem
‘‘The Tyger,’’ about the ferocious and somehow
mesmerizing tiger. Instead of praising gentle
beauty, like fluttering daffodils or trees laden
with fruit, Toomer focuses on more violent
imagery, celebrating nature’s power as a form ofTOPICS FOR
FURTHER
STUDYWrite a narrative or essay recounting your
experience of a storm. Did it make you feel
frightened? Were you relieved when it ended?
Or did you somehow revel in its power?
Explore the history of racial discrimination in
the United States, focusing on one aspect,
such as Jim Crow laws and segregation,
lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, restrictions
imposed on voting in order to exclude African
Americans, or other discriminatory practices
from the time of the Civil War through the
first half of the twentieth century. Write a
report on your findings.
Does racial discrimination still exist? Now
that Americans have elected an African
American president, has everything changed?
What effects have the civil rights movement
and affirmative action programs had? Does
the African American population still have a
lower socioeconomic status than the white
population, and if so, is this attributable to
racism? Organize and moderate a class
debate over the extent to which racial dis-
crimination still exists in the United States.
Prepare a list of stimulating questions on the
topic and create rules for your debate, includ-
ing time limits for participants.
Research the history of the Harlem Renais-
sance. Who were its leading literary figures?
What other academic fields were affected by
it? Did the movement have political implica-
tions? Was it a conscious movement whose
members worked together, or is the name just
a label applied later? What effect did the
renaissance have on black culture and the
culture of the country generally? Give a
class presentation on your findings.Storm Ending