story:

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

The poem, like Bradbury's story, is a cautionary tale about human pride: we need to be careful about how we behave, because there is no guarantee we will survive as a species.

The image of the bodies of the family etched into the wall of the house is taken directly from John Hersey's bestselling 1946 book Hiroshima. Hersey uses the image of vaporized bodies etched into walls twice in the book, and it is one of the most famous images associated with his work. Using this image, Bradbury makes clear that a nuclear war is what destroyed this civilization. It is also shorthand for all the horrors people at that time associated with atomic warfare, an allusion that would have been very clear to those reading the short story when it was first published in 1950.

Bradbury uses rats and snakes as part of the technology of the house. Both are animals associated with the dark side, and Bradbury also alludes to the home's incinerator as Baal, a false god in the Jewish and Christian tradition. These allusions associate technology with evil.

The Picasso and Matisse paintings allude to important modern art of the twentieth century. The fire, a symbol of nature, feeds on them "like delicacies," reinforcing the idea that nature cares nothing about preserving humankind's achievements.

One of the first allusions found in Ray Bradbury's short story is found in the automated voice that emanates from the weather box, singing, "rain, rain go away." It is a variation on a folk song from seventeenth-century England and is traditional in the US as well.

The major allusion from which the story takes its title is a 1918 poem by American poet Sara Teasdale. The theme of the poem is that nature will endure long after mankind has destroyed itself with its propensity toward violence and war. Ray Bradbury imbues his story with a similar theme; it is man's violence that has destroyed humanity, leaving only burned silhouettes where people used to be. Bradbury's story is also a cautionary tale about the folly of expanding mankind's interest in and dependence on technology. It ultimately becomes dehumanizing, taking over everything from food preparation to cleaning to childrearing, leaving very little for humans to look after on their own.

The narrator likens the incinerator in the basement of the house to Baal, a Canaanite god. Presumably, the incinerator, which removes all traces of life, is another manifestation of the machines that man makes to create destruction.

When the house begins to burn, the works of Modern painters Picasso and Matisse are engulfed; alluding to them may be Bradbury's statement about how even masterpieces created by mankind will be destroyed, while nature will live on in humanity's absence.

An allusion is a reference to a well known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. There are three important allusions in Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains." First, Bradbury alludes to the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima in 1945 when he reveals that the images of four people and a ball have been imprinted in charcoal on one wall of the automated house:

The entire west face of the house was black, save for five places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands flung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.

Photographs of these types of images were taken in the aftermath of the attack on Hiroshima. Bradbury also alludes to Hiroshima by making the date August 5, 2026. The date of the original bombing of Japan was August 6, 1945. By making the date the fifth, Bradbury may be suggesting that more attacks are on the way, just as a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later in 1945.

A second allusion is to the poem of the same name which is significant because Sara Teasdale's "There Will Come Soft Rains" envisions a world devoid of human beings. In her poem, however, the animals, trees and birds are still alive, never noticing the absence of humans. Teasdale even suggests they may be better off without mankind. Likewise, the automated house never seems to notice that there is no human presence as it goes on with its daily routine.

Finally, Bradbury mentions the modernist artists Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Their paintings are consumed in the fire which destroys the house. The artistic visions of Picasso and Matisse are considered harbingers of the modern world, the world which would ultimately create the technology that is used in the house and which is responsible for the invention of atomic weapons. One might wonder if one of the paintings was Picasso's famous interpretation of an air raid on the Spanish city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts a frightening scene with distorted and twisted bodies, some looking with horror at the sky above.

The significance of the allusions to two great artists deserves a further look:

The fire crackled up the stairs. It fed upon Picassos and Matisses in the upper halls, like delicacies, baking off the oily flesh, tenderly crisping the canvases into black shavings.

Picasso was a Spanish artist who is known as one of the most influential contributors to the field in the twentieth century. Picasso's subjects were numerous, but perhaps his best-known painting is Guernica, which depicts a bombing in a town of the same name, reflecting the terrors and inhumanities of war in shades of black, gray, and white. It is ironic, then, that a Picasso painting is consumed by fire following a war and the seeming destruction of mankind.

Matisse is often regarded as the most influential French artist of the twentieth century. Therefore, these two great artists were rising to fame and worldwide recognition by their efforts toward beauty at the same time when scientists were working toward the completion of technology which would ultimately result in the atomic bomb. The power of mankind on both ends of potential is thus revealed through this allusion. Mankind has tremendous power to create beauty and tremendous power to create destruction.

In the end, mankind is responsible for destroying itself and all of the beauty that was accomplished along the way, signified by the flames metaphorically eating these beautiful and prized works of art.

There are three ways in which the literary device of allusion is used in Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains."

First, the poem by Sara Teasdale is alluded to in the title and in the body of the story. Here is the poem: 

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, 

  And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

  And wild plum trees in tremulous white, 

  Robins will wear their feathery fire

  Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

  And not one will know of the war, not one

  Will care at last when it is done. 

  No one would mind, neither bird nor tree

  If mankind perished utterly; 

  And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, 

  Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Sara Teasdale wrote this poem in response to the destruction of World War I. It is a commentary that all of nature exists in harmony and purpose, and only mankind functions contrarily to this. Teasdale suggests that if mankind destroyed itself, nature would continue on, unaffected. 

This is strikingly similar to what happens in Ray Bradbury's story. The house continues to cook meals, give reminders, recite poems, prepare for leisure time, and in all ways serve the masters who live there. The only problem is—the owners are gone. The only hint we have as to what has happened to them is the total destruction of the neighborhood, and the black silhouettes of a family on the siding of the house, their images presumably burned into the wall by a type of nuclear blast. 

Another allusion in the story is the reference to the pagan god Baal. When the house is cleaning, all the dust and debris it sweeps up is sent into the basement, where it is put into an incinerator. Bradbury compares this contraption to the evil god which was introduced to the Jewish people through the evil queen Jezebel. In the Bible, the prophet Elijah discredits Baal by calling his worshippers into a type of contest in 1st Kings chapter 18. Here is the allusion in Bradbury's story: 

There, down tubes which fed into the cellar, it was dropped into the sighing vent of an incinerator which sat like evil Baal in a dark corner. The dog ran upstairs, hysterically yelping to each door, at last realizing, as the house realized, that only silence was here.

Just like in 1st Kings, the worshippers of Baal were met only with his silence, in Bradbury's story, the house is met with the silence of its masters. 

Another minor allusion is the reference to Picassos and Matisses that the fire consumed. This refers to Pablo Picasso's paintings, who was a Spanish artist famous for his cubist paintings, and Henri Matisse, a French painter in the post-impressionist era. 

An allusion is a reference within a work of literature to history, religion, other literature, or anything within the culture really. Today, references to pop culture including celebrities and TV are common. The most obvious example of allusion in this story is the title, taken from the Sara Teasdale poem which the house recites. ''There Will Come Soft Rains"  was written in response to World War I. Teasdale believed that after all the wars were over, the earth would continue to exist without human interference. Though Teasdale could not have imagined the devastation of nuclear war, her poem is the basis for Bradbury's apocalyptic vision. Even a world which has been poisoned will continue to exist. That the house reads this version of the future that has already come to pass is the irony of the situation. Even though the destruction was foreseen, it wasn't prevented.

One other example of allusion, although not as important as the title, is evident in the story. While explaining how the mice clean the house, the speaker describes them feeding the debris into an incinerator which sits "like evil Baal." This is a reference to the heathen god of the Old Testament and Satan's chief lieutenant in Paradise Lost by Dante. This suggests the resulting evil of man's reliance on technology, & the consequences of unregulated advancements.

The breakfast stove churns out a lovely breakfast for the people who are no longer there, and a while later, it disposes of the food, which has been left uneaten. The narrator says that "hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and flushed them away," and the dishes are dropped into the washer. The pipes in the sink, perhaps a garbage disposal, are compared, via metaphor, to a metal throat. With the inhabitants of the house gone, no longer able to swallow down their breakfast, the house's metaphorical throat replaces their own.

Later, the house itself is compared to an old unmarried woman as a result of its "mechanical paranoia," the way it responds to various critters that have approached it since its humans were, evidently, vaporized. The narrator describes the house's "old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection" in this way. Further, after the old family dog returns to the home, emaciated and decrepit now, the house begins to make pancakes, torturing the poor beast with the delicious scent. The dog, we are told, begins to froth at the mouth, and "its eyes turned to fire." The animal runs around in circles, biting itself, and finally dies in the parlor. The dog's eyes are metaphorically described as turning to fire, perhaps because the animal's longing for the food the house produces is so strong that it seems to consume his entire being.

Next, the clean-up mice that come out of the walls are referred to as "regiments," comparing them to the military, probably because they are so well-ordered and efficient and single-minded in their maintenance of the home. Still later, the attic of the house is compared via metaphor to a "brain," as the machinery that keeps the house functioning seems to be housed there. As a result of this fire, the house shudders, "oak bone on bone," its beams and rafters compared to the bones that make up a human skeleton.

The house, which continues to function after its inhabitants have been vaporized in a nuclear holocaust, is described in personifying metaphors, such as "it had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old maidenly preoccupation with self-protection."  On the day the story begins, the house "quivered at each sound, the house did."  After a period of continuing to function mechanically, the narrator describes the house as becoming more and more sensitized to its isolation and reacting fearfully, like an old woman on her own.

The impending metaphoric death of the house begins with the line "At ten o'clock the house began to die."  Somewhere, sighing, a pump shrugged to a stop."  Though the house is fully mechanized and programmed for the family's needs, this is metaphoric language since houses do not actually live, nor do pumps signal their indifference or resignation. 

At the story's end, a single wall stands to witness the house's destruction.  Its repetition of the date deepens the poignancy of the fact that no one is left to hear or respond to the advance of time.

Bradbury uses a number of metaphors in this short story. When describing the house, for example, Bradbury compares it to an "altar," and likens its many appliances, like the cleaning robot-mice, to "attendants." Similarly, he describes the house's attempt to keep intruders out as a religious ritual which goes on "senselessly" and "uselessly." This religious metaphor reinforces the idea of constancy. The house will not stop its functions, even though the family members are all dead and never coming back.

In addition, when describing how the house drops any dust and debris down some tubes into the cellar, Bradbury compares this action to an "evil Baal." Baal is a demon, so by making this comparison Bradbury highlights the house's constant need to remove itself of dirt. It views dirt as an unwelcome guest and removes it as soon as it is discovered. 

Metaphors are, therefore, important in helping Bradbury  bring the house to life while highlighting its various functions. In doing so, he warns the reader that technology can be as equally destructive as it can be helpful. 

Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains," is filled with figurative language. The most prevalent form of figurative language in this story is personification, followed by simile. There are a few metaphors in this story, as well. Metaphors compare two unlike things without using like or as, which distinguishes them from similes. 

One of the metaphors compares the house to a great altar. Here is the quote: 

"The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly." 

The inhabitants of the house are compared to gods in this metaphor. They are the ones who have gone away. The rituals of the house are compared to religious rituals. Religious rituals are man's attempt to gain access to a god or gods. The house cooks breakfast, gives announcements, prepares baths and entertainment. It is all useless, however, without the family to receive the service. The attendants can't access the gods. The altar, or house, remains empty.  

Another metaphor occurs when the house catches on fire. The house is designed to spray a green chemical to stop fires when they are detected. A metaphor is used to describe this: "Now there were twenty snakes whipping over the floor, killing the fire with a clear cold venom of green froth."

The snakes are the hoses which spout the green fire retardant. The chemical is compared to venom, as it attacks the fire, much as a snake attacks an enemy.  

The house left standing after a nuclear war symbolizes the human worship of technology. In the story, the house is pictured as a god. For example, Bradbury writes:

The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs 

and describes

an incinerator which sat like evil Baal in a dark corner.

Likening the incinerator to "Baal" reinforces the house as symbol of idolatry, for Baal was a false, impotent god who could not conjure up fire in the Biblical story of Elijah and the priests of Baal. 

The frightened, emaciated dog covered in sores symbolizes life: life that is sick and dying. The false god of the house doesn't serve this life but simply waits for it to die. The house sees life, the living organism, as a problem, a mess that it doesn't want to deal with. 

[The dog] moved in and through the house, tracking mud. Behind it whirred angry mice, angry at having to pick up mud, angry at inconvenience.

Having the mechanical cleaning devices shaped to look like mice and rats symbolizes that they are pests, invaders, underlining the ambivalence of the mechanical as "helpful" to humans and other living things. Do we really want mice and rats in our home, even if they are supposed to be useful? Isn't reliance on them a little disgusting?

The Sara Teasdale poem which lends the story its name is read by the house, which is incapable of understanding the poem's irony. The poem symbolizes the victory of nature over the machine.

Finally, the fire at the end symbolizes the power of nature: the house, as powerless as Baal, is unable to defend itself against this force and so is destroyed. 

Symbolism abounds in Ray Bradbury's futuristic story "There Will Come Soft Rains."  The entire story operates as one enormous extended metaphor, chronicling the dangers of humanity's over-dependence on technology and the frightening threat of atomic warfare. 

The most prominent symbol within the story is the actual house.  Even after the family has died, the house remains, dedicated to its little daily chores, humming along despite the destruction of the world around it:

"The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing."

Bradbury uses the functions of the house to symbolize routine and order amid chaos and dysfunction.  The fact that Bradbury has the technology of the house surviving after its owners are deceased reveals the author's belief that humanity will be outlasted by its own technology. 

The best example of symbolism is the house itself. It is the last remaining creation of humanity in this city, a place destroyed by nuclear weapons and almost entirely devoid of life. Since the house is automated and not equipped with artificial intelligence, it can only act on its programming, and can't make the decision to stop performing for the humans that are long-dead.

The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.
(Bradbury, "There Will Come Soft Rains," nexuslearning.net)

The house symbolizes order in the midst of chaos; it still acts and functions, and with everything around it destroyed. It is the last vestige of reason in the meaningless annihilation of nuclear war; it is also a place where there is still purpose, even if that purpose no longer has a larger meaning. The house fights entropy and ultimately fails, its rubble falling into the larger rubble of the destroyed city; this could symbolize a very pessimistic view of determination and the human struggle for meaning.

Water is one of nature's elements, and it provides a source of life support for the house and its family. It is used for cleansing, drinking and watering the plants outside. It also serves as a source of protection, as we find when the house responds to the fire within. But the water proves to be no match for the destructive power of fire--another of nature's forces. In a world that has used technological advancements for comfort, such as in the house, it is this same technology which has destroyed the town and its people, leaving only the single house standing. In the end, however, it is nature's elements which fight against each other over the house. The sprinkler system and the water-spouting mice attempt to save the house, and perhaps they would have succeeded except for the draining of the house's water reserves. Water, a combative enemy of fire, can be a deterrent to flames; but unlike fire, which only grows stronger and hotter as it spreads, water sources have its limits. Like the Sara Teasdale poem of the same title, the water of soft rains

Would scarcely know that we were gone.