"There Will Come Soft Rains" Glossary

Flashcards for "There Will Come Soft Rains" Glossary

Ejected

Pushed out

Relays

Electronic switches

Tread

Sound of feet walking

Shriveled

Wrinkled and shrunken

Whirled

Spun, twirled

Emerged

Came out

Warrens

Small animal homes, like the underground tunneled homes of rabbits

Kneading

Squeezing, bunching, and pushing into to clean

Burrows

See warrens

Rubble

Broken down remains of buildings, usually cement, stone, brick or other hard building materials

Radioactive glow

Like the glow of a city that has been bombed by a nuclear explosive, having a greenish-yellowy-orange fluorescent tinge to it

Founts

Sprays or spurts of water, as if from a fountain

Charred

Burned to a blackened crisp

Titanic

Enormous, like a Titan, or giant

Charcoaled

Burnt to black

Inquired

Asked

Old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection

A single woman’s obsession with being safe because she is alone

Mechanical paranoia

A robot’s unnecessary fear

Quivered

Trembled, shook

Altar

A religious table that is the center of the religious mass, or service

Whirred

Moved quickly, creating a light, vibrating sound

Inconvenience

Annoyance that requires effort but seems as if it shouldn’t

The sighing vent of an incinerator

A boiler of sorts that burned up all waste

Evil Baal

A powerless god of the Bible known for not being able to create fire

Frothed

Foamed, as if from disease

Regiments

Organized groups with a job to do, like a military unit

Sprouted

Grew out of

Pips

The spots or markings on playing cards

Manifested

Showed up; materialized

Cavorting

To move around playfully, as if in an unorganized dance

Bellows

An air bag used for fanning a fire

Okapi

A large browsing mammal of the giraffe family

Dissolved

Disappeared slowly into a blur

Parched

Dried due to high heat; waterless

Thorn brakes

Thorny thicket; brush

Hearth

Fireplace

Sara Teasdale’s 'There Will Come Soft Rains'

A cautionary tale, this famous post-apocalyptic poem was published during WWI

Swallows

Small birds

Robins

Birds

Whims

Personal impulses or urges; what comes to mind

Utterly

Completely

Scarcely

Barely

Bough

(Pronounced bow) branch

Solvent

A chemical substance

Ablaze

On fire

Linoleum

Fake tile

Quenching

Soaking

Picassos and Matisses

Famous artwork

Delicacies

An expensive food

Canvases

The cloth on which artists paint

Reinforcements

Back-ups, used to strengthen or replenish the originals

Peered

Looked at with intensity

Froth

Bubbly liquid

Shrapnel

Metal pieces, shavings, fragments

Cringing

Bending in fear or anxiety

Capillaries

Thin blood vessels

Scalded

Burned by hot liquid

Brittle

Hard but ready to crack or shatter

Sheathings

Coverings

Vanished

Disappeared

Oblivious

Totally unaware

Frantically

Wildly

Maniac

Wild and insane, with extreme energy

Horrid

Horrible, awful

Sublime disregard

Amazing, mind-blowing carelessness or inattention

Psychopathic rate

Insanely quickly

Deep freeze

A large frozen storage chest or freezer area