SNAKE Q/As
1. He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wallin the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellieddown, over the edge
of the stone-trough
(a) From where had the snake appeared?
The snake had come from the inside portion of the earth-wall.
(b) Describe the path the snake took to reach the water.
The snake came out from the crack in the wall and came trailing on the
ground to reach the edge of the water trough
(c) Identify the poetic device in ‘slackness, soft-bellied’.
Alliteration
(d) Why did the snake come there?
The snake had come there to quench his thirst.
2.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
(a) Explain ‘mused a moment?
It means ‘it appeared to be thinking for some time’.
(b) What does the manner of the snake suggest?
The snake appears very relaxed and ‘unhurried’ and takes his time to drink
water.
(c) Why is the poet watching every action of the snake?
The snake has fascinated the poet with his majestic behaviour.
(d) What was the colour of the snake?
The snake was of golden brownish colour.
Short Answer Type Question
(a) How were the poet’s beliefs regarding snakes conditioned by society?
Society ingrains certain preconceived notions in our mind and due to that we don’t judge situations by instinct — The poet was fascinated by the snake.
He appreciated the snake’s majestic and harmless nature but the earlier
instincts drilled in him by society force him to strike at the snake. He had
been taught to kill snakes.
(b) Why does the poet feel honoured by the presence of the snake?
The poet feels obliged that the snake had come all the way from the inner
depths of the earth to his water trough and this was a kind of honour.
Moreover, the snake is so regal and majestic in his bearing that the poet
feels honoured to have him as his guest.
(c) Why did the poet despise himself? Mention the three words that he uses to
describe his action.
The poet feels very guilty of trying to hit at the snake. He calls his act ‘mean’
‘petty’ and feels like making amends. The poet believes that he must
compensate for his unreasonable and undignified act. He uses the words ‘to
expiate’, which express his feelings.
(d) The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience contrast
emotions on seeing the snake?
When the poet saw the snake drinking water from the water trough, he was
overpowered by the voices of human education and natural instinctive
fascination for the snake. On one hand, the voice of modern education
prompts the poet to kill the snake for golden brown snakes are poisonous.
On the other hand, his natural instinct fascinated him and he felt honoured
that the snake had sought his hospitality.
(e) “And I have something to expiate, a pettiness” is the last and most powerful line of
the poem. What does the poet expiate?
Expiate is such a strong word meaning repent or atone for a crime. The poet
wants to atone for his sin. He regrets throwing the log at the snake as he
realized that the snake was not going to harm him. He wants to repent his
pettiness and atone for the sin he has committed.
(f) The poet gives a vivid description of the snake. Describe accordingly.
The snake, which visited the poet, had a yellowish brown belly, which
drooped along the edge of the stone trough. He was resting his throat upon
the stone bottom and sipping water from the trough into his sleek long body.
After quenching his thirst, he raised his head and flickered his forked
tongue.
Long Answer Type Question
(a) What ideas and thoughts come to the poet's mind when he finds a poisonous
snake drinking water at his water trough?
After reaching his water trough on a very hot day,the poet finds a snake
drinking water from his water trough. He waits for the snake to finish
drinking water first since he is very particular regarding protocol. The snake
was brown in colour. The poet makes a frank confession that he really liked
the snake but educational and social conventions make the poet think that
the golden brown snakes were poisonous, so they must be killed. The inner
instinct of the poet makes him feel honoured that a snakehad come to seek
his hospitality from the deep recesses of the earth.
When the snake started to retreat back into the dark hole, the poet disliked it
and hurled a log at the snake.The snake vanished into the hole in great
haste. The poet was full of guilt. He really hated himself for such a mean act
and cursed the voice of education that had always taught him to kill snakes,
without any reason.
(b) Why does D.H Lawrence make an allusion to the albatross from Coleridge’s ‘The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner’?
The poet brings up a comparison with an event of the celebrated poem of
S.T. Coleridge, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ He finds similarity of his
act to that of the mariner’s. In Coleridge’s poem, the mariner had killed the
albatross when it visited his ship for shallow reason and later the mariner
longed for its return. In this poem too, D.H Lawrence tried to harm the snake
by hurling a log without any proper cause and later had longed for its return
from the underworld.
(c) Describe the manner in which the snake arrived and departed.
The snake had come from the crack in the wall made of earth, from the
darkness, from the scorching inside portion of the earth. The snake did not
feel the threat of the poet’s presence, so its movement is very languid, very
relaxed and unhurried. It stretched its long and slack body, drank water with
great spells of flavor and enjoyment. It licked its lips; it mused and put his
head on the edge of the water-trough. Its departure was exactly the
opposite—quick, clumsy, abrupt like the speed of lightning.
(d) Bring out the irony in the poet’s act of dropping the stick that gave the snake an
undignified shiver.
The poet’s gentle behaviour with snake while it was drinking water from his
water trough was probably the only instance in the lives of the Sicilian
snakes in history. In Sicily, snakes never expect a man to behave gently with
them nor does a man let a snake go in a single piece. By behaving
benevolently, considering the snake as a fellow creature, a glorious king, as
God himself, the poet had brought the snake to a false security feeling.
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