Compare and contrast the different attitude to animal shown by the poet in the poems I have read.

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Compare and contrast the different attitude to animal shown by the poet in the poems I have read.

The poems that I am going to write about about in my English coursework are Snake by DH Lawrence.  Also Medallion and The arrival of the Bee Box, which is written by Sylvia Plath.  The last poem that I have to write about is Horses, which is written by Edwin Muir.  In the coursework we were set two poems, which we had to do were Snake and Medallion, which are both about snakes.  So I got the choice of which other two poems I had to write about in this topic.  The other two poems that I picked were Horses by Edwin Muir and The arrival of the Bee Box by Sylvia Plath.  I picked these two out of the list, which we could pick as the both showed signs of fear that the animals can have other people in certain situation.  Also in the Arrival of the Bee Box the writer’s attitude changers because of what the bees do.  In horses the writer is looking back from when he was a child and how that he was scared of the horses that ploughed the fields as they were very large and the writers language in the poem changers as for certain times of the day that he sees the horses they look different to him.  The reason why this happens is because he has a very vivid imagination, which makes him think that these are very dangerous.

Snake is about how that DH Lawrence has an encounter with a snake.  The poet attitude towards the animal is very mixed as the snake as intrigues him by the quote (And looked around like a god unseeing god unseeing into the air.)  You can also see that he is scared by the presents of the snake (And as he put his head into that dreadful hole.)

DH Lawrence builds up the his views of the snake by emphasise the word and his views on the snake start of very positive and then later on his views change again and he has very many negative points about the snake.  DH Lawrence honours the snake and makes out that the snake is a God.  Also he makes the snake sound like it is an animal of elegance and that it should not be unfairly treated as it as been stereotyped by people as an evil thing so he is trying to educate people about these animals.  But DH Lawrence starts of as if he should not observe the snake and kill it (He must be killed.)  He decides that he must give the animal a chance and not kill it in cold blood.  He allows the snake to carry on drinking    from the trough were he had gone to fetch some water.  He does not want the snake to leave, as he is very pleased to be in the presents of the snake, which he considers to be (For He seemed to me like a king.)  As the snake finishers its drink DH Lawrence says (Dreamingly as if drunk.)  This is personification as the animal cant get drunk as only humans get drunk so he is now making it out to be human so this is how it could be called a king.  After he says that the animal has become drunk on the water the speed of the poem becomes very slow and so he says (And slowly turned his head.)  When people are drunk this slows them down so that there movement is slow so he is again personifying the snake.  The speed of the poem changers after the snake wants to the leave the trough.  This enrages DH Lawrence as he does not want this animal to leave   (Overcame me now his back was turned.)  He decides that he must not let the snake leave so that he thinks he must make him angered and he will not leave (I picked up a clumsy log.)  After this he feels remorse as he hopes he did not injure the snake (I think I did not hit him.)  You then see that the animal has shrugged of his drunken state and speeds of (Writhed like lightening, and was gone.)  DH Lawrence shows the snake respect as he says (And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords.)  So he has again used personification when he has been describing the snake, he also feels guilty for he not having respect for the snake and lashing out at it so he says that (A pettiness.)  So he is calling his actions very worthless and that he should have let the snake go on its own accord.

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Snake and Medallion both have snakes in them but then they have very different plots in them as u can see in Snake it is about how DH Lawrence meets a snake and how he miss treats it by attacking it with a log.  While in Medallion Sylvia Plath discovers a dead snake on her garden and she starts to look and seems to care for it and she is very sad, as the snake had not done anything to harm any one.

 

 The poem Medallion is about how Sylvia finds a snake and she try’s to ...

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