D.H. Lawrence's 'Snake'.

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Aside from the reality of a mysterious, occasionally poisonous predator is the archetypal image of the serpent, latent with mythological, biblical, and historical symbols. Among the most common phobias is ophiaphobia, or fear of snakes, despite the unlikeliness of one to encounter a snake in the urban world (Rapoport 195). Lawrence, though does encounter "Snake", and while fear is, without a doubt, entangled in the web of reaction to and regard of the serpent, it is not the only dominant emotion. Intimidation is immediately established from the dawn of the poem, where Lawrence's narrator is "in pajamas for the heat", in the company of a visiting serpent (2). In such casual attire as pajamas, one is left feeling vulnerable and exposed, susceptible to social attack. Lawrence's character is, of course, vulnerable to the snake's venomous predation, but he is also susceptible to society's and human nature's convictions of the slithering snake, which effectively influences the narrator's judgement. Naturally, this intimidation is absurd. It continues throughout the poem while the narrator "like a second-comer" waits, but the snake, throughout the incident, proves to be harmless (15). The true daunting forces of the narrator's sentiments are the "voices of [his] education" (22). While