Why does Ray Bradbury include the poem of the same name in his short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains?"

In "There Will Come Soft Rains," Bradbury includes this poem because it reinforces his key message that mankind's over-reliance on technology will lead to destruction. Looking at the context of Sara Teasdale's poem, for example, we see that she wrote it in the aftermath of World War One, having witnessed first-hand the destructive capability of new technologies. In her poem, she addresses this issue directly and argues that war is a pointless and meaningless activity which only nature will survive:

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

By including this poem, then, Bradbury echoes Teasdale's belief in the danger of technology and the futility of war. It is ironic, however, that in Bradbury's story, it is man's technological creation, a talking house, which survives the nuclear blast. This is thus a stark warning to reign in our reliance on technology and to realise that our destruction is a possibility.