A Little Fall Of Rain Lyrics – Les Miserables

Song Overview

Song Credits

• Artist: Kaho Shimada (or Lea Salonga) & Michael Ball
• Producer: David Caddick
• Composers: Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel
• Lyricist (English adaptation): Herbert Kretzmer
• Release Date: 1988
• Album: Les Misérables: The Complete Symphonic Recording
• Track: 29
• Genre: Musical Theatre
• Language: English
• Label: First Night Records

All copyrights © 1988 First Night Records

Song Meaning and Annotations

In the stage version of Les Misérables, Éponine’s death comes swiftly—a shadow on the barricade, a single shot. No fanfare, no explanation. The soldiers, unseen. Her fall, theatrical minimalism. It’s streamlined chaos—simple, but sudden.

In Hugo’s novel, the moment breathes with detail. A gun aimed at Marius. A hand—hers—intercepts fate. The bullet tears through her palm and lodges in her chest. Later, he learns the truth. Like the stage, she dies in his arms. But here, her sacrifice is sharp, deliberate.

That original arc returned in the 2012 film. It reclaims the melody from Éponine’s Errand—a haunting echo. Even in pain, Marius asks after Cosette. Earlier, he’d entrusted Éponine with a letter—another blind request, another cut. Now she cannot stand—not from grief, not from blood loss.

MARIUS senses it. She’s wounded. He reaches—too late—for help, for something he cannot fix.

There’s blood, plenty of it.

Your hair is wet

Some stagings show her hiding the stain, jacket drawn close. A quiet lie to ease his panic. Yet beyond gesture, there’s a deeper calm—she feels no pain, because she’s with him. That’s all she wanted. His arms. A quiet end.

The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France

He sees her love now. Maybe too late. Still, he mirrors it back.

ÉPONINE reaches for that childlike wish. As Cosette once sang of clouds, Éponine wants arms around her. Just once. Just this. To be loved before the dark takes her.

Her love is so deep, so unwavering, that even dying becomes bearable in his embrace. In On My Own, she imagined him beside her. And now—

In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight And all I see is him and me forever And forever.

The rain is a thread.

The pavement shines like silver

ÉPONINE & MARIUS

So don't you fret, Monsieur Marius (Hush-a-bye, dear Éponine) I don't feel any pain (You won't feel any pain)

This duet isn’t his usual song with Cosette. Here, he sings her lines back to her. A borrowed lullaby. A comfort. If he can’t return her love, he can give her peace.

I’ll stay with you

It’s the line where reality pierces Marius’ youth. He still clings to hope, but she is slipping. She’s the first death he faces. He wants to hold her through it, if nothing else.

The irony is cruel. He stays only when it’s too late. That intimacy she longed for now arrives—

‘Till you are sleeping

Throughout Les Misérables, sleep whispers of death. Fantine’s final breath sang it first.

Will make the flowers

Her unfinished line matches Gavroche’s own. Both Thénardier children fall mid-sentence, mid-life. The words left unspoken: “grow up.”

Few things ache like a duet ending in death. But Hugo knew how to cut deeper. Éponine’s last words in the novel:

Promise to kiss me on my brow when I am dead.—I shall feel it… And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you.

“A Little Fall of Rain” is the lullaby of love unrequited, soaked in tragedy and resignation. As a dying Éponine collapses into Marius’s arms, this duet unfurls like a tragic sonnet — hushed, intimate, and final. It’s a pivotal emotional heartbeat in Les Misérables, where the barricade is both a literal wall and a metaphor for emotional distance that could never quite be breached.

The Heart of the Barricade

The scene is chaos — gunfire, cries, and collapsing dreams — and yet we are drawn into a quiet pause. Éponine, wounded and fading, whispers with tenderness:

“Don’t you fret, Monsieur Marius / I don’t feel any pain / A little fall of rain / Can hardly hurt me now.”

She masks fatal wounds with a childlike comfort, using “a little fall of rain” as both poetic understatement and metaphor — rain becomes the soft curtain drawn between life and death. She has made peace, even as Marius remains agonizingly unaware of the full extent of her devotion until these final moments.

Verse by Verse: Love in the Shadows

Éponine’s lines are layered with double meanings. Rain, typically cleansing and renewing, here becomes a backdrop for surrender. Her pain is physical, but her real ache lies in emotional solitude. She sings not to express agony, but to comfort Marius — a lullaby to ease his horror.

“You will keep me safe / And you will keep me close / And rain will make the flowers grow.”

To her, even death is worth it if she can remain in Marius’s arms. This is not a declaration of victory, but rather one of emotional closure. The flowers she mentions might well be her legacy — the memory of her love, nurtured by sacrifice.

Musical Structure and Symbolism

Musically, the piece is sparse, almost hesitant. The strings do not swell; they weep. The melody treads lightly, afraid to disturb the solemnity of death. Every note underlines the irony: Éponine is finally close to Marius, but at the ultimate cost. Rain, in this context, is an atmospheric balm and a quiet harbinger, washing the streets and softening the narrative’s bloodied edges.

Similar Songs

1. “On My Own” – Frances Ruffelle
   Also from Les Misérables, this solo mirrors Éponine’s internal world — solitude, unreciprocated love, and quiet strength. Thematically, it's a prelude to her fate, delivered in wistful tones. While “A Little Fall of Rain” offers closure, “On My Own” is the ache before the storm.
2. “I Dreamed a Dream” – Patti LuPone
   Fantine's lament and Éponine’s farewell could be seen as spiritual siblings. Both explore what happens when dreams shatter, yet are delivered with poise and melodic elegance. The haunting realizations within their lines — about men, love, and despair — connect their narratives deeply.
3. “Your Eyes” – Adam Pascal & Daphne Rubin-Vega (from RENT)
   Like “A Little Fall of Rain,” this track unfolds as one character cradles the other in their final moments. It’s raw, pared down, and utterly personal. Both songs use tenderness to portray the unbearable death softened by love that was never quite fully shared.

Questions and Answers

What is the main message of “A Little Fall of Rain”?

It conveys the quiet bravery of unrequited love, with Éponine finding solace in death simply because she's close to Marius. The metaphor of rain as the painless transition is central.

Why is Éponine’s death significant?

It symbolizes the tragic beauty of selfless love. She dies not just for the cause, but for a love that was never returned — making her both a martyr and a silent heroine.

How does the song differ in the musical versus the novel?

In the musical, Éponine’s death is more poetic and less graphic. In Victor Hugo’s novel, she heroically saves Marius from a bullet, adding layers of physical bravery to her emotional sacrifice.

Why is rain used as a symbol?

Rain represents both the inevitability of death and the potential for rebirth — it's gentle, cleansing, and strangely comforting in this grim moment.

What makes the duet structure impactful?

It allows for emotional contrast — Marius's frantic worry and Éponine’s calm acceptance play off each other, intensifying the bittersweet nature of the moment.

Fan and Media Reactions

"Every time I hear this, I tear up. Éponine’s voice is so soft — it’s like a lullaby into the afterlife." – @MusicalSoul86

"Michael Ball's voice trembling at the end hits hard. You feel Marius’s helplessness so deeply." – @theatre_kid_92

"The calmness of her death, the rain metaphor... it's devastating and poetic." – @rainonthewindow

"This scene shows that sometimes dying for love is the only way some characters get noticed. It’s brutal." – @BroadwayBro

"The harmony when they sing 'rain will make the flowers grow' — I get chills every single time." – @eponinesecho