Refrains

There are two important refrains in “Twelfth Song of Thunder.” They go a little something like this: “The voice that beautifies the land” and “Again and again it sounds.” Together, these two lines make up half of the entire poem, in fact. Of course, this is a song, and songs tend to use a lot of repetition. But these refrains are there for a reason: not only do they create a certain rhythm, they also give us a sense of the cycles of nature. This is a poem about nature, and the various voices of nature repeat themselves in a cyclical way, just as the seasons do.

• Line 1: “The voice that beautifies the land” is a line that’s repeated four times in the poem (see lines 6, 7, and 12 as well). These words are repeated so often because they’re important. They’re telling us that the voices of nature—like the sound of thunder or the sound of the grasshopper—are what make nature beautiful. Not only that, but the “voice of thunder” also is a voice that sustains people. Thunder means rain, and rain means that our crops will grow and we can feed ourselves and our children. 
• Line 5: “Again and again it sounds” is another line that’s repeated in the poem. It comes up twice, repeating again in line 11. The line itself is about repetition: the “voice” sounding “again and again.” The line, in other words, is not only repeated, it’s also cluing us in to the importance of repetition in nature. Things happen over and over in the natural world.