Poem -   Snake

Question 6
   a) The poet decides to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking because he was second to come over there. The snake was the first comer. Unless the snake was gone, he couldn’t go to the trough.
This tells us that the poet respects the snake and his right to exist.it also tells us that the poet is quite generous ,gentlemanly and  considerate.

b)  From the above mentioned stanzas, the picture of the snake emerges very beautiful and clear.
 The snake is yellow-brown or golden-brown in colour. It weakly trails his soft belly over the edge of the stone trough. It seems tired and thirsty and drank water slowly. Just like a cattle, it raises its head and then drinks some more water. It has a two-forked tongue, which it flickered and mused while drinking.

c) The poet described the day and atmosphere to be hot. It is clear through phrases used in the poem like: ‘On a hot, hot day’, ‘in the deep, strange scented shade…’, ‘burning bowels of the earth’, ‘day of Sicilian July, when Etna smoking’.

  d)  By this the poet wants to convey that there is intense heat inside the hole of the earth as it is burning.

   e) I think the snake was not conscious of the poet’s presence as if it were, it couldn’t have behaved majestically and as if it were in a dream. It looked around like a god but not at the poet, though it looked in the direction where the poet stood.

   f) The snake’s thirst was satiated as it looked dreamily after drinking the water. The expressions used to justify the same are: ‘and flickered his two-forked tongue’, ‘mused a moment’, ‘he drank enough’, ‘and lifted his head dreamily.’

   g)The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. It is because he is caught in between by human instinct and rational thought. Human instinct makes him appreciate the snake and love animals. However, the voice of human education or rational thought says that snakes are poisonous and are to be killed.

h)  The irony of the situation lies in the fact that the poet likes the snake for its beauty and considered it like a king and a guest, yet he hit the snake with a log. Moreover, though he did not want it to go, his act forces the snake to leave immediately.

i) The expressions are: ‘and flickered his two-forked tongue/ from his lips’, ‘and mused a moment’, ‘But must I confess, I liked him’, ‘How glad I was…’, ‘like a guest in quiet’, ‘I stared with fascination’, ‘Like a king in exile.’

j) We find the snake thirsty at the beginning of the poem. It draws its slack body over the edge of the water-trough leisurely and slowly. But when the poet strikes a log at it, it ‘convulses and writhes’ like lightening

k)  The poet feels this way because he feels regret and realizes that he shouldn’t have thrown a log to kill the snake.The snake had come to satiate his thirst,was his guest and had harmed him in no way.
The expressions are: ‘how paltry,how vulgar,’what a mean act,’I despised myself’.

l) The poet makes an allusion to the albatross because it was shot by the Ancient mariner, although nobody wanted it to die. However, later on board the ship, everybody agreed on it being a right thing to do. Later, the mariners wanted it back as it brought with it, the wind to steer the ship. Likewise, the poet in Snake wants the snake back to accept his hospitality like an honored guest.

m) It means that the poet has something to regret for ever. This is that he shouldn’t have thrown a log to kill the snake.

Q.7    Diary entry
day/date                                                                                                    time
Dear diary
 I had a terrible incident in my life, today. I did something for which I shall regret throughout my life. A snake visited my water trough today in the afternoon. It was extremely hot and he had come to quench his thirst. Knowing this, I fought against my consciousness and threw a log at him. I know it was a very selfish and cruel thing to do and my indecisive mind couldn’t focus well. It expected hospitality but my mind was in a state of dilemma. I was torn between rational thought and conscience I threw the log at him and Iimmediately regretted my action.I had no right to harm him as he had harmed me in no way and was a guest of mine.
(poet)

Question 8:(just read the answer you don’t have to write)

  By using alliteration, sibilance and onomatopoeia, D.H.Lawrence has succeeded in creating a kind of visual and sensory effect on us. In line ‘And trailed his yellow- brown slackness, soft-bellied down,’ we feel the onomatopoeia effect in ‘trailed’, ‘slackness’, and ‘soft- bellied down.’ We almost hear both the sound and the movement of the snake. Equally in line ‘And flickered his two- forked tongue,’ /f/ sound (sibilance) and onomatopoeic effect in ‘flickered’ lend a visual and sensory movement to the snake.

 In the line ‘Softly drank through his straight/ gum, into this slack long body/ Silently’, the /s/ sound conveys the snake’s feature of the snake through sibilance. In doing so, the poet has been successful in bringing out the image of the snake through the sound, movement and shape. Another example of onomatopoeic word ‘slowly’ and /s/ sound indicates the use of sibilance, conveys this effect: ‘And slowly turned his head,/ And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice a dream’.


Question 9:
literary devices.1) Repetition:
Hot, hot day;
Earth brown, earth golden;
Was it cowardice, was it perversity, was it humility;
I was afraid, I was most afraid;
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream.

Simile:
as drinking/ cattle do;
And lifted around like a god;
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice a dream;
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken;
and I, like a second comer;
like a king in exile;
he had come like a guest;
writhed like lightening.SNAKE