"Snake" By D. H. Lawrence - review

GCSE English

“Snake”

By D. H. Lawrence

Vocabualry:

*Carob-tree: a red flowered tree originally in the Mediterranean area.

* pitcher : tall, round container with an open top and large handle.

* flickered: moved

* mused : think about

* bowel: bottom of earth

* perversity: offensive

* log: tree trunk

* clatter: v. loud sound of hard things hitting

* convulsed : violent movement

* writhed: to twist and turn in great pain

* paltry: worthless

Background :

D.H. Lawrence belongs to the 20th Century. He was interested in the idea of contrasts. Most of his writings deal with the conflict between opposities such as instinct and artificiality apects of modern life, good and evil, light and darkness, man and animal. He believed that human nature in general is made of opposities.

“Snake” is a 74 line free verse poem. It incorporates a narrative element recording the poet’s encounter with a snake at his water-trough .This poem was written when D. H. Lawrence and his wife were living in Taormina ,Sicily in 1920. This poem is derived from Lawrence’s actual experience there.

Theme:

The setting is a hot July day upon which the poet takes his pitcher to the water-trough , where a snake is drinking The poet here recreates the image of the traditional snake which is usually associated with evil. He introduces two types of snakes ; the literary snake and the allegorical one. He suggests an allegorical(metaphorical) meaning to the idea of the snake. The snake , according to Lawrence represents Nature that ties Man to the earth .However, he criticizes the way the Man in modern age deals with this nature and how he tends to destroy it as a result of his education or civilization.

The protagonist in this poem is torn between two voices, that of his education, which tells him that the snake is dangerous and should thus be killed immediately and that of his soul, which feels that he is spirtually linked to this snake that honoured him “ I longed to talk to him”. The voice of the speaker ‘s education is considered the voice of the reason of human civilization while that of his soul is that which glorifies Nature. Therefore, the relationship between Man and Nature is clearly traced here , where the voice of nature is represented through the image of the snake and the albatross for both are associated with nature while the speaker here is associated with human culture , with industry which according to the poet abused human life.

Analysis:

- The first five stanzas establish the scene and provide the occasion for the poet’s initial, sensual description of the snake. The poem begins “on a hot hot day,” there is nothing special about this day except the appearance of that snake. The poet shows that the behaviour of this snake is very natural. He is there

“to drink”. Lawrence describes this snake as his equal both of them came "To drink there" (3). The Poet uses personification to make us sympathize with the snake. The poet has to wait for the snake to finish drinking and this ...

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Analysis:

* There is an appeal to the sense of smell while describing this exotic place

“ in the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob –tree”.

* The alliteration in “ strange – scented” almost brings to mind the hissing

sound of the snake.

- The poet then goes on describing the appearance of the snake . He is appealling, it’s colour is “yellow-brown” shows how the poet’s view of this snake of an admiring one. He then goes on describing the movement of the snake which appeals to the sense of touch in “soft-bellied” . The word “slackness” enables us to visualize the slow movement of the snake. The poet appears to be fascinated by the snake, where he describes each and every movement.

- The poet wants to create an atmosphere of silence and serenity and this through the consonant “s” in “ softly , sliently , sipped, ,straight and softly, slack” all these words transmits an atmosphere of tranquility and calmness and this to emphasize the idea that this snake does not come to harm the poet ,on the contrary ,he just seeks to drink in this hot weather.

The 4th stanza raises the snake to human level. When the poet calls the snake as “Someone” ,this personfication again stresses how the speaker respects this snake and honours him.

The simile in stanza 5 ,

“He lifted his head from his drinking ,as cattle do

And looked at me vaguely ,as drinking cattle d”

Enables us to visualize the movement of the snake ,as well as it gives the snake the characterstics of the domesticated animals to show that he is harmless. He is not wild or dangerous because he is part of nature. The poet describes every detail, “The snake forked tongue” is a very lively description.The snake even “mused a moment” , we feel we are in a presence of a human being and not a dangerous or deadly snake. The colour of the snake “earth –brown, earth golden” makes it charming and bright as well as confirms that it is coming from earth’s “burning bowels”. The words “burning” and “smoking” create an atmosphere of heat.

The 6th stanza breaks the silence and tranquility of the previous stanzas as it introduces us to another sound, which is the voice of the poet’s reason and education that urges him to kill the snake because it is “venemous”.The use of colour here again appeals to the sense of seeing and serves to show the reader how this snake looks attractive. However, the poet admires him and was glad that this snake sought his hospitality and came as a “ guest in quiet ”to drink and leave peacefully. The simile here:

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough”

again conforms with the overall idea of the poem which depicts the snake as a tamed ,harmless creature.

The 7th and 8th and 9th stanza further enhances human cruelty against nature. The voice of the poet’s education or in other words his civilization is inherent in him, he can’t get rid of it. He keeps hearing voices and comments which urdge him to “take a stick and break him off”. In other word ,to destroy nature and the beauty that he sees and appreciates. The poet starts asking direct questions to himself ,however it shows how confused and preplexed he is between this voice of reason and his instinctive feeling towards this snake which resembles nature and he sees that it didn’t harm him, therefore why should he kill this creature.

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?

Was perversity ,that I longed to talk to him?

The poet is seeking an explaination to his behaviour towards the snake , yet he felt so “honoured” that this snake chose his water-trough to drink from.Furthermore, he still can’t stop these voices that goes into his mind which urges him to kill this snake. Such voices keep on accusing him of being coward

“And yet those voices:

If you were not afraid, you would kill him”

The 10th stanza depicts a picture of the snake in a romantic way “dreamily” ,this shows how charming he is. The simile in “as one who has drunken” enhances the idea of being charming and fascinating. He also uses “to lick his lips” to emphasize how harmless he is. There is another simile here where the snake is compared to “god” and this to raise him above human level as well as to show how fascinating and dignified this snake is. The reptition of “slowly” enhances the peacful and confident movement of this snake . the words “slow length curving round” enables us to visualize the movement of the snake and how it coils.

The 11th stanza then talks about the poet’s horrified sense when he saw this snake withdrawing into this black hole. The description of “slowly drew up, snake- easing his shoulders” succeeds in showing the vivid movement of the snake. The repetition of the word “slowly” in this stanza further enhances the silence of the atmosphere as well as shows the snake as a confident creature who trusts the person standing infront of him (the poet).

In the 12th stanaza , the poet unfortunately listens to the voice of his education and behaves like anyother person. He is finally tempted to throw “a clumsy log”.Its clusmness contrasts with the beauty of the movement of the snake. The word “clatter” appeals to our sense of hearing as well as breaks again the silence in this poem. The word “convulsed” emphasizes the pain and terror of the snake as well as it shows the cruelty of the poet in hitting this harmless snake who runs in “undignified haste” which contrasts with his dignified look in the previous stanzas.

The poet regretted this mean action in the 13th stanza, where he blames himself for acting in “paltry” and “vulgar” manner. Here the poet started to scorn the human beings and human teachings because it made him lose the sight of the thing that was very fascinating to him.

In the 14th stanza, the poet used literary allusion in borrowing the image of the “albatross” from Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” ,where the seagull stands for the guilt of human violence against nature.Albatross is a symbole of good , and here it is comapred to the snake. Thus combining good and evil again when the speaker regrets breaking the pride and dignity of this creature (snake).

The 15th stanza , the snake is compared to an uncrowned king “in exile” ,where here this simile shows how the poet regards him. He will remain uncrowned in the underworld ,This image has a biblical reference where here it refers to the serpent which tempted Adam and Eve and contributes to the Original Sin .This snake induce the Fall of Man .Therefore, here it refers to satin or the devil.

16th stanza ,"Pettiness" the narrator expiates, for his prejudices, his psychological limitations, and then ends up in a tone of repentance and guilt . The poet feels guilty and is left with something to “expiate”.

Form and Langauge:

The poem is written in free –verse with no rhyme scheme and no regular stanzas. This could reflect the irregular movement of the snake as well as the lack of harmony between man and nature in modern time and the sense of confusion the writer feels.

The poet uses very simple modern everyday language . He also tends to use narration where you get the feeling that he is narrating a story which is one of the important technique of modern poetry. Moreover, he used this technique to make the reader share with him his feelings and draw a realistic picture of his experience.

However, at some points, the writer uses different vocabulary to atrract the attention to turning points in the poem , for example words like “mused”, “dignified” , “humility” , “ proceed” to refer to the majesty of the snake.

To sum up, it is clear that D. H. Lawrence is interested in the idea of contradictions in life. He believes that life is bounded with oppositions. However, in this poem he shows how he appreciates nature and rejects all man’s reason and teachings which is based on the stereotype image of the snake. This confusion in the poet’s mind is illustrated successfully and effectively in a way that made us identify and sympathize with this snake .

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