Why did the poet like the snake

The poet chased him away with a stick. His behavior had no specific reason as such. The poet feels very sorry for his disgraceful, unacceptable and uncouth behavior and action and rebuked the voices of education and civilization that had shaped his thoughts and urged him to have chased away the creature.

‘Snake’ is probably D. H. Lawrence’s best-known poem. Lawrence wrote ‘Snake’ while he was living on the island of Sicily, in the beautiful resort, Taormina, on the east side of the island. ‘Snake’ is conversational in tone, which makes it reasonably accessible; nevertheless, some words of analysis on the poem’s language and meaning may be useful. Snake He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough And rested his throat upon the stone bottom, And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness, He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently. Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second-comer, waiting. He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more, Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking. The voice of my education said to me He must be killed, For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous. And voices in me said, if you were a man You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off. But must I confess how I liked him, How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough And depart ...

A narrow Fellow in the GrassAnalysis Stanzas One and Two A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides; You may have met him—did you not His notice sudden is, The grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen, And then it closes at your feet, And opens further on. With the opening line of the first The speaker claims that “his notice is sudden” suggesting that one notices him suddenly, and that he suddenly notices the presence of another. Then, when the speaker describes this narrow fellow as one who “dives as with a comb” and has “a spotted shaft”, the reader becomes aware that the speaker is not referring to a human being, but to a snake. With the first few lines, the speaker intended to trick the reader into picturing a human being, so that it comes as a shock when the reader realizes that ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’is about a snake. Then the speaker says that the snake “closes at your feet”. The use of the word “your” here, brings the reader into this experience. Now the reader can picture a snake at his own feet, and can perhaps feel what the speaker herself has felt at this encounter with a snake. Once the snake has circled “your” feet, he slithers away. Stanzas Three and Four He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn, But when a boy and barefoot, I more than once at noon Have passed, I thought, a whip lash, Unbraiding in the sun, When stooping to secure it, It wrinkled and was gone. In these ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’, the speaker claims that...

Late he repented over his foolish act. He desired for the snake to come back. In this poem, D.H. Lawerence has given a universal theme where the manners and ways of one creature of God to another creature of God are presented. He urged human beings that every living and non-living creature is created by God. Reference to the Context and Explanation Lines 1-6 A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pajamas for the heat To drink there. In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree I came down the steps with my pitcher And must wait must stand and wait, For there he was at the trough before me Reference Lines 7-12 He reached down from a fissure in the earth -wall in the gloom And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied Down, over the edge of the stone trough And rested his throat upon the stone bottom And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness He sipped with his straight mouth Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently Reference and Context In these lines, the poet narrates that the snake had come there from a crack in the earth wall. He appeared out of a hole in the earth wall in the darkness. He dragged his soft yellow-brown body to the edge of the stone trough and placed his throat upon the bottom of the stone container where water drops were dripping from the tap. Lines 13 – 20 Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second comer, waiting. He lifted his he...

The Snake – Introduction The Snake is a narrative poem written by the English poet and novelist D H Lawrence. Written in first person narrative technique, it recounts the poet’s memory of a hot day in Sicily when he encountered a snake. In the poem, the poet is at his water-trough to fetch a pitcher of water when he sees the snake drinking from the trough. What follows is the poet’s internal struggle and realisation of his sentiments and faults as we drop into the scene with the magnificent and deadly golden snake. The text of the poem is divided into nineteen stanzas of irregular length. It is written in free verse and thus has no rhyme scheme, but it makes up for it with the prodigal use of assonance, consonance and alliteration. Advertisements D H Lawrence is known to challenge social conventions and to question arbitrary norms and this poem is a perfect example of it. The poet questions social teachings and explores the intricacies of human thought and action. The snake is a well anthologized poem and displays the poet’s concerns of man’s distancing from nature. The poem is also filled with subtle allusions to religious themes. Some critics argue that ‘The snake’ by Lawrence has a few similarities to the tale of Adam and Eve, in that both deal with what is called ‘moral corruption.’ Stanza wise Explanation of the poem ‘The Snake’ Stanza One: “A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there. The poem begins with the subje...