The poem "The Rainy Day" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes a cold, dark, and dreary day where it is raining and the wind is never weary. The speaker notes that their life too is cold, dark, and dreary, with their thoughts clinging to the past as hopes of youth fall away. The poem urges the sad heart to cease repining, as behind the clouds the sun is still shining, and that it is the common fate of all for some days to be dark and dreary, and for some rain to fall into everyone's life.