The Snake - D.H. Lawrence
[alert-success] The Snake
[/alert-success]
[alert-primary] Stanza-wise Summary [/alert-primary]
[btn href="https://www.speedynotes.in/2024/05/the-snake-dh-lawrence-study-guide.html" class="bt" btn]Back[/btn]
Introduction :
"The Snake" is a narrative poem authored by D H Lawrence, an esteemed English poet and novelist. The poem employs a first-person narrative approach to narrate the poet's recollection of a scorching day in Sicily during which he came across a serpent. Within the poem, the poet is situated at his water-trough, preparing to retrieve a pitcher of water, when he observes the snake consuming the water from the trough. The subsequent passage delves into the poet's internal conflict and subsequent recognition of his emotions and shortcomings, as we enter the scene featuring the awe-inspiring and perilous Golden Serpent
Stanza-wise Summary:
The poem is structured into a total of nineteen stanzas, each characterized by its uneven length. The poem is composed in free verse, lacking a rhyme scheme. However, it compensates for this by employing abundant assonance, consonance, and alliteration.
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 commences with the central theme of the poem, namely the serpent. The poet resided in Sicily throughout the composition of the poem and is recollecting a scorching day while donning his pajamas. According to him, a snake frequently visited his water trough on that particular day to consume water.
Stanza Two:
"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.”
The poet filled a pitcher at his water-trough. The trough smelled odd and was shadowed by a dark carob tree. He had to pause and stand aside as he down the steps because a snake was already at the trough.
Stanza Three:
"He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over
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."
The poet explains snake movement in the third stanza. He claims the snake emerged from a gap in his house's mud wall. The poet claims the snake followed the stone trough's edge. He describes the snake's movement with many words. The adjectives ‘yellow-brown slackness’ and ‘soft-bellied’ conjure a vivid serpent image.
The poet describes the snake as it slowly slithered to the bottom of the stone trough and drank the tap water with his ‘straight mouth’. The last paragraph repeats, ‘the snake swallowed water through his slack jaws into his slack long body silently.’
Stanza 4:
"Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.”
The fourth stanza is brief and repeats the poet's words. The poet adds that someone was at ‘His’ water trough and standing there as a second. This implies that the poet dislikes the snake.
Stanza 5:
“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.”
Still staring at the snake, it lifted its head from drinking like a cow or bull eyeing the poet coldly. The snake flashed his forked tongue between his lips, paused to contemplate, then leaned down and sipped more water. The poet saw a thirsty snake. The poet calls the serpent earth-brown and earth-golden. He says it was a scorching July day in Sicily. Etna smoked. The poet lived near Mount Etna in Sicily when the poem took place.
Stanza Six :
“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.”
As the snake drank from his trough, the poet wanted to kill it. He was afraid of the snake since he knew Sicily's black snakes were harmless but the golden ones were deadly. We learn from our own and others' experiences as we go through life. The poet calls golden snakes ‘the voice of (my) education’ because he has experienced their sting.
Stanza Seven:
“And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.”
Natural aversion, fear, and its manifestations. Most people are so afraid of reptiles, especially snakes, that they kill them immediately. The poet is used to this instinct. He saw the golden-brown snake as a mortal threat. His mind was convincing him to kill the serpent with courage. The poet's words ‘finish him off’ reflect his disgust for the serpent.
Stanza Eight:
“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 peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?”
The poet admits he liked the snake and was happy to meet him. The scary is frequently interesting. To appreciate the poet's situation, we can recollect our childhood visits to zoological parks and sanctuaries. The reader may have enjoyed seeing lions, tigers, bears, and snakes. We dread and admire such monsters. This poet feels the same about snakes. Despite being scared and wanting to murder him, he is delighted to have seen him. More importantly, the poet sees the snake as a visitor that drank at his water trough to cool himself and then quietly returned to the ground. Consider the words ‘peaceful’, ‘pacified’, and ‘thankless’. The poet is pleased that his trough aided the snake.
Stanza Nine:
“Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured"
In this verse, the poet's desire to kill the snake and his attraction with him conflict. He is unsure what to do. He doesn't know if he didn't kill the snake out of cowardice or attraction. The poet realizes his infatuation with a deadly serpent is his ‘perversity’ (irrationality). He said he wanted to talk to the snake to learn more and keep staring at him. He doesn't know if he was humble enough to honor a poor creature like the serpent and not kill him. This and the next stanzas show the poet's internal battle over how to handle the snake.
Stanza Ten:
“And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!”
The poet's thoughts kept telling him he would have killed the snake if he weren't terrified. At the back of his mind were fears. The reader feels the poet's personal battle more in this stanza.
Stanza Eleven:
“And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.”
The poet says he was terrified by the snake at first sight. The poet was honored that the snake had chosen his house to sip water and come from the depths of the ground. The poet views the snake as a guest seeking his ‘hospitality’.
Stanza Twelve:
“He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.”
The snake drank happily and calmed down. A intoxicated man gently lifted his head in a dreamlike manner. He flicked his tongue again. The snake's tongue is described as ‘like a forked night on air’ by the poet. The snake licked his lips, looked around, and slowly left the trough. Again, a simile is utilized in ‘looked about like a god’ since the snake seemed unconcerned that a mortal person was waiting for his turn in the trough. He climbed the poet's house wall to go. Unlike most snakes, this one moves slowly and languidly. This might be because the day was hot and exhausting, the poet wanted the snake to stand out, or he was so involved in watching the snake that he saw every detail.
Stanza Thirteen:
"And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.”
Snake headed away. The poet's dwelling wall had a hole for his head. Crawling behind him, he entered further. Using the odd phrase ‘snake-easing his shoulders’, the poet eases into the hole. As he carefully entered the dark pit, the poet observed terror and protest. The poet almost wished the snake would stay in the darkness. This poet is captivated by the serpent.
Stanza Fourteen:
“I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.”
The poet looked around and set down his pitcher. He grabbed a log from around and hurled it at the trough to stop the snake from entering into the dark.
Stanza fifteen :
“I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.”
The poet recounts not knowing if the wood hit the snake. He believes it probably didn't. However, the snake behind him convulsed rapidly as he flung the log. It swirled and approached itself before disappearing. The snake vanished instantly like lightning. After the snake left, the poet stared at the hole alone in the hot day.
Stanza Sixteen:
“And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.”
The poet immediately regretted his actions. He mocked himself for such a pitiful, filthy, and cruel conduct. The poet feels ashamed of what society has taught him: to take innocent life without consideration. He detested himself and his impulse and ‘accursed human education’ that prompted him to murder the snake.
Stanza Seventeen :
“And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.”
The poet compares his circumstance to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Albatross, in which a sailor kills an albatross and regrets it. He wants the snake back.
Stanza Eighteen:
“For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.”
The poet saw the Snake as a monarch in exile. This poem glorifies the serpent as a monarch in exile uncrowned in the underworld. Snakes are majestic and powerful land-rulers. The poet now thinks the snake should be crowned and honored.
Stanza Nineteen:
“And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.”
In this fashion, the poet closes in the final verse by asserting that he failed to seize an opportunity to encounter one of the deities of existence and must now express remorse for his own indifference and trivial conduct towards the serpent.
Conclusion :
D.H Lawrence is renowned for his propensity to defy societal conventions and scrutinize capricious rules, and this poem serves as an exemplary illustration of his boldness. The poet interrogates societal doctrines and delves into the complexities of human cognition and behavior. The serpent is a widely recognized poem that reflects the poet's preoccupation with humanity's detachment from the natural world. The poem is replete with nuanced references to religious motifs. Several critics contend that Lawrence's 'The snake' shares certain resemblances with the story of Adam and Eve, as both explore the concept of 'moral corruption.
Stanza-wise Summary:
The poem is structured into a total of nineteen stanzas, each characterized by its uneven length. The poem is composed in free verse, lacking a rhyme scheme. However, it compensates for this by employing abundant assonance, consonance, and alliteration.
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 commences with the central theme of the poem, namely the serpent. The poet resided in Sicily throughout the composition of the poem and is recollecting a scorching day while donning his pajamas. According to him, a snake frequently visited his water trough on that particular day to consume water.
Stanza Two:
"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.”
The poet filled a pitcher at his water-trough. The trough smelled odd and was shadowed by a dark carob tree. He had to pause and stand aside as he down the steps because a snake was already at the trough.
Stanza Three:
"He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over
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."
The poet explains snake movement in the third stanza. He claims the snake emerged from a gap in his house's mud wall. The poet claims the snake followed the stone trough's edge. He describes the snake's movement with many words. The adjectives ‘yellow-brown slackness’ and ‘soft-bellied’ conjure a vivid serpent image.
The poet describes the snake as it slowly slithered to the bottom of the stone trough and drank the tap water with his ‘straight mouth’. The last paragraph repeats, ‘the snake swallowed water through his slack jaws into his slack long body silently.’
Stanza 4:
"Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.”
The fourth stanza is brief and repeats the poet's words. The poet adds that someone was at ‘His’ water trough and standing there as a second. This implies that the poet dislikes the snake.
Stanza 5:
“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.”
Still staring at the snake, it lifted its head from drinking like a cow or bull eyeing the poet coldly. The snake flashed his forked tongue between his lips, paused to contemplate, then leaned down and sipped more water. The poet saw a thirsty snake. The poet calls the serpent earth-brown and earth-golden. He says it was a scorching July day in Sicily. Etna smoked. The poet lived near Mount Etna in Sicily when the poem took place.
Stanza Six :
“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.”
As the snake drank from his trough, the poet wanted to kill it. He was afraid of the snake since he knew Sicily's black snakes were harmless but the golden ones were deadly. We learn from our own and others' experiences as we go through life. The poet calls golden snakes ‘the voice of (my) education’ because he has experienced their sting.
Stanza Seven:
“And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.”
Natural aversion, fear, and its manifestations. Most people are so afraid of reptiles, especially snakes, that they kill them immediately. The poet is used to this instinct. He saw the golden-brown snake as a mortal threat. His mind was convincing him to kill the serpent with courage. The poet's words ‘finish him off’ reflect his disgust for the serpent.
Stanza Eight:
“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 peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?”
The poet admits he liked the snake and was happy to meet him. The scary is frequently interesting. To appreciate the poet's situation, we can recollect our childhood visits to zoological parks and sanctuaries. The reader may have enjoyed seeing lions, tigers, bears, and snakes. We dread and admire such monsters. This poet feels the same about snakes. Despite being scared and wanting to murder him, he is delighted to have seen him. More importantly, the poet sees the snake as a visitor that drank at his water trough to cool himself and then quietly returned to the ground. Consider the words ‘peaceful’, ‘pacified’, and ‘thankless’. The poet is pleased that his trough aided the snake.
Stanza Nine:
“Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured"
In this verse, the poet's desire to kill the snake and his attraction with him conflict. He is unsure what to do. He doesn't know if he didn't kill the snake out of cowardice or attraction. The poet realizes his infatuation with a deadly serpent is his ‘perversity’ (irrationality). He said he wanted to talk to the snake to learn more and keep staring at him. He doesn't know if he was humble enough to honor a poor creature like the serpent and not kill him. This and the next stanzas show the poet's internal battle over how to handle the snake.
Stanza Ten:
“And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!”
The poet's thoughts kept telling him he would have killed the snake if he weren't terrified. At the back of his mind were fears. The reader feels the poet's personal battle more in this stanza.
Stanza Eleven:
“And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.”
The poet says he was terrified by the snake at first sight. The poet was honored that the snake had chosen his house to sip water and come from the depths of the ground. The poet views the snake as a guest seeking his ‘hospitality’.
Stanza Twelve:
“He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.”
The snake drank happily and calmed down. A intoxicated man gently lifted his head in a dreamlike manner. He flicked his tongue again. The snake's tongue is described as ‘like a forked night on air’ by the poet. The snake licked his lips, looked around, and slowly left the trough. Again, a simile is utilized in ‘looked about like a god’ since the snake seemed unconcerned that a mortal person was waiting for his turn in the trough. He climbed the poet's house wall to go. Unlike most snakes, this one moves slowly and languidly. This might be because the day was hot and exhausting, the poet wanted the snake to stand out, or he was so involved in watching the snake that he saw every detail.
Stanza Thirteen:
"And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.”
Snake headed away. The poet's dwelling wall had a hole for his head. Crawling behind him, he entered further. Using the odd phrase ‘snake-easing his shoulders’, the poet eases into the hole. As he carefully entered the dark pit, the poet observed terror and protest. The poet almost wished the snake would stay in the darkness. This poet is captivated by the serpent.
Stanza Fourteen:
“I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.”
The poet looked around and set down his pitcher. He grabbed a log from around and hurled it at the trough to stop the snake from entering into the dark.
Stanza fifteen :
“I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.”
The poet recounts not knowing if the wood hit the snake. He believes it probably didn't. However, the snake behind him convulsed rapidly as he flung the log. It swirled and approached itself before disappearing. The snake vanished instantly like lightning. After the snake left, the poet stared at the hole alone in the hot day.
Stanza Sixteen:
“And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.”
The poet immediately regretted his actions. He mocked himself for such a pitiful, filthy, and cruel conduct. The poet feels ashamed of what society has taught him: to take innocent life without consideration. He detested himself and his impulse and ‘accursed human education’ that prompted him to murder the snake.
Stanza Seventeen :
“And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.”
The poet compares his circumstance to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Albatross, in which a sailor kills an albatross and regrets it. He wants the snake back.
Stanza Eighteen:
“For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.”
The poet saw the Snake as a monarch in exile. This poem glorifies the serpent as a monarch in exile uncrowned in the underworld. Snakes are majestic and powerful land-rulers. The poet now thinks the snake should be crowned and honored.
Stanza Nineteen:
“And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.”
In this fashion, the poet closes in the final verse by asserting that he failed to seize an opportunity to encounter one of the deities of existence and must now express remorse for his own indifference and trivial conduct towards the serpent.
Conclusion :
D.H Lawrence is renowned for his propensity to defy societal conventions and scrutinize capricious rules, and this poem serves as an exemplary illustration of his boldness. The poet interrogates societal doctrines and delves into the complexities of human cognition and behavior. The serpent is a widely recognized poem that reflects the poet's preoccupation with humanity's detachment from the natural world. The poem is replete with nuanced references to religious motifs. Several critics contend that Lawrence's 'The snake' shares certain resemblances with the story of Adam and Eve, as both explore the concept of 'moral corruption.
[btn href="https://www.speedynotes.in/2024/05/the-snake-dh-lawrence-study-guide.html" class="bt" btn]Back[/btn]
0 Comments