Let’s pretend that we are sometime into the future—or perhaps to the past—to the day of our wedding. When I think about mine, everything is unknown and rightfully so: I have no clue of the setting, the time, the food, or the flowers of my bouquet. Yet nobody needs a time machine to even understand the tiniest bit of mixed emotions one would feel. In the “Rain Effect,” Mary Ruefle portrays the emotions of marriage through her own interpretation of an art piece, “Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai. 

It doesn’t take a genius to understand the characteristics Hokusai was attributing to the ocean of his art. The tidal wave is huge and powerful, the whitecaps are bold and large, and the boats look absolutely helpless like balls of yarn thrown between cats. In his piece, Hoksaui captures the power of nature—the overwhelming force of water that humans cannot control. That is what Mary Ruefle reflects in her poem with the connection to overwhelming emotions of marriage. It is very obvious that Ruefle is taking inspiration from the painting, not just from her credit towards Hokusai, but by the structure of her writing. There is no period throughout the poem, only commas until the last line, giving it a flowing cadence of water. 

The poem begins with a bride and groom on their wedding day, both, “waiting for the rain to stop, waiting for the marriage to begin.” This “rain” represents nervousness for starting the marriage, fear of entering a new chapter of their lives, and possibly some sadness of closing their past lives. Hence, the rain is described as being cold because the word is frequently associated with sadness or the color blue. The poem then describes the rain falling on the bride’s bouquet, the groom’s clothes, and the horse that is pulling their carriage like a tsunami crashing down on everything. Multiple times throughout the poem, the author uses the phrase “the rain cold as the sea, the sea cold as the love” which describes the raindrops gathering to form a sea, developing the individual emotions into a huge wave of emotions. It reveals how everything surrounding the couple reminds them of what they are getting themselves into. 

In the poem, there is a line where the couple is described to be holding hands but unable to look at each other. This line is interesting because the author implies love is present, symbolized by the holding of hands, yet it also reveals that there is a barrier that keeps the couple from fully loving one another. I imagine this scene to be a bride and a groom sitting with enough space between them to create an awkward silence, yet both with outstretched arms that hold hands in the middle; perhaps the bride is fumbling with her dress with her other hand—maybe some occasional clearing of the throat from the groom, but both, at the end, not knowing what to do. 

Ultimately, I think guilt and shame were the barriers of the couple. The author develops how the rain represents nervousness and anxiety of commiting to a marriage; however, I do not think these are the reasons why the couple cannot look at each other. Rather, the couple feels guilty and ashamed of their “rain” of emotions because this rain, in other words, represents their uncertainty. By the point of marriage, a bride and the groom should feel completely dedicated towards each other. After all, a wedding is like the final stamp that seals an envelope of commitment between the two people. The “right” emotions one should feel would be hopefulness, passion, and utter happiness. If these emotions were portrayed as weather, it should be a bright, spotless day with rays of sunshine pouring down on the wedding. However, the portrayal as a rainy day reveals the gravity of the situation.
It is important to note that the whole reason why the couple felt uncertainty in their marriage was due to their great love for one another. I think the couple were worrying whether they were good enough for their partner, not the other way around. It's simple—the dearest things to us cause us the most fear and anxiety of our behaviors and actions. Perhaps love was the ultimate connection Mary Ruefle was trying to make with Hokusai’s art. The rain falling on the bride and groom’s wedding may represent the hesitancy of young love; however, these raindrops have the potential to grow into an ocean. As much as the tidal wave can be seen as something overwhelming, it can be also seen as something overcoming. The wave, so majestic and mighty, can reveal the ability of love to persevere through anything. Perhaps, this tidal wave can be a foreshadowing of the couple’s ability to overcome their struggles.