Snake - Interact in English: Literature Reader - Class 10 - CBSE English

Read what W.W.E. Ross feels when he sees a snake and fill in the table given below:
The Snake Trying
The snake trying
to escape the pursuing stick,
with sudden curvings of thin
long body. How beautiful
and graceful are his shapes!
He glides through the water away
from the stroke. O let him go
over the water
into the reeds to hide
without hurt. Small and green
he is harmless even to children.
Along the sand
he lay until observed
and chased away, and now
he vanishes in the ripples
among the green slim reeds.

Given below is the summary of the poem Snake in short paragraphs. However they are jumbled. Work in pairs and put the summary into a logical sequence.

1. After drinking water to his satisfaction, the snake raised his head dreamily and flickered his forked tongue and licked his lips. The snake looked around like a God and then slowly proceeded to curve round and move away from the water trough.

2. The poet felt much like the ancient mariner who had killed the albatross for no reason. He wished that the snake would come back. He thought of the snake as a king in exile who had to be crowned again. He also regretted having missed his opportunity of knowing and understanding one of the lords of life.

3. As the snake put his head into the hole to retreat into the earth, the poet was filled with a protest against the idea of the snake withdrawing into his hole. The poet put down his pitcher, picked up a log and hurled it at the snake. The snake twisted violently and with great alacrity vanished into the hole in the wall.

4. Asnake visited the poet's water trough on a hot afternoon to quench his thirst. The poet who had also gone to the trough to fill water in a pitcher waited for the snake to depart since he had come at the trough prior to the poet.

5. The voice of education inside the poet which tells him that it was the fear for the snake that made him refrain from killing him. However, the poet felt that though he was quite afraid of the snake, he did actually feel honoured that a snake had come to seek his hospitality from the deep recesses of the earth.

6. He is guilt-ridden and feels that he has to atone for the meanness of his action of

   throwing a log at the snake.

7. The snake rested his throat upon the stone bottom and sipped the water into his slack long body. After drinking water, he raised his head just like cattle do and flashed his forked tongue, thought for a moment and then bent down to drink some more water.

8. Education and social conventions make the poet think that the golden brown poisonous snake must be killed and that as a brave man he must undertake the task of killing the snake.

9. The poet instantly felt sorry for his unrefined and contemptible act and cursed the

   voices of education and civilization that had shaped his thought process and urged him to kill the snake.

10. However, the poet instinctively likes the snake, treats him like a guest and feels honoured that it has come to drink at his water trough. The poet questions himself and wonders whether his not daring to kill the snake proves that he is a coward and whether his desire to talk to the snake reflects his perversity

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following questions by selecting the correct options:

1. 'he lifted his head from his drinking as cattle do' - The poet wants to convey that the snake is_________________.
   a) domesticated
   b) innocent
   c) as harmless as cattle
   d) drinking water just like cattle

2. 'Sicilian July', 'Etna smoking' and 'burning bowels of the earth' are images that convey that________________.
   a) there are snakes in volcanic areas
   b) the poet lives in a hot area
   c) it is a really hot day when the snake comes
   d) Sicilian snakes are dangerous

3. 'A sort of horror , a sort of protest overcame me' - The poet is filled with protest because____________.
   a) he doesn't want to let the snake remain alive
   b) he fears the snake
   c) he doesn't want the snake to recede into darkness
   d) he wants to kill it so that it doesn't return

4. In the line 'And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther' the phrase snake easing' his shoulders means_______________.
   a) loosening its shoulders
   b) slipping in with majestic grace
   c) moving slowly
   d) moving fast

5. 'He seemed to me like a king in exile…' The poet refers to the snake as such to emphasize that the snake______________.
   a) is like a king enduring banishment
   b) is like a king due to be crowned
   c) is a majestic king who came for a while on earth
   d) is a majestic creature forced to go into exile by man

6. 'I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act' -The poet is referring to _________.
   a) the snake going into the dreadful hole
   b) the accursed modern education
   c) the act of throwing a log of wood at the snake
   d) the act of killing the snake

Why does the poet decide to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking? What does this tell you about the poet? (Notice that he uses 'someone' instead of 'something' for the snake.)

In stanza 2 and 3, the poet gives a vivid description of the snake by using suggestive expressions. What picture of the snake do you form on the basis of this description?

How does the poet describe the day and the atmosphere when he saw the snake?

What does the poet want to convey by saying that the snake emerges from the 'burning bowels of the earth'?

Do you think the snake was conscious of the poet's presence? How do you know?

How do we know that the snake's thirst had been satiated? Pick out the expressions that convey this.

The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience conflicting emotions on seeing the snake?

The poet is filled with horror and protest when the snake prepares to retreat and bury itself in the 'horrid black', 'dreadful' hole. In light of this statement, bring out the irony of his act of throwing a log at the snake.

The poet seems to be full of admiration and respect for the snake. He almost regards him like a majestic God. Pick out at least four expressions from the poem that reflect these emotions.

What is the difference between the snake's movement at the beginning of the poem and later when the poet strikes it with a log of wood? You may use relevant vocabulary from the poem to highlight the difference.

The poet experiences feelings of self-derision, guilt and regret after hitting the snake. Pick out expressions that suggest this. Why does he feel like this?

You have already read Coleridge's poem The Ancient Mariner in which an albatross is killed by the mariner. Why does the poet make an allusion to the albatross?

'I have something to expiate'-Explain.

The encounter with the snake and the dual response of the poet to his presence at the water trough reflect a conflict between civilized social education and natural human instincts. The poet writes a diary entry highlighting how he was torn between the two voices. Write in his diary.

Alliteration
Onomatopoeia

D H Lawrence uses both these devices effectively in the following stanza.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of
the stone trough
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.

To what effect has the poet used these devices? How has it added to your understanding of the subject of the poem? You may record your understanding of the characteristics of a snake under the following headings:

a) Sound
b) Movement
c) Shape

The poet has also used both repetition and similes in the poem. For example-- 'must wait, must stand and wait' (repetition) and 'looked at me vaguely as cattle do' (simile).Pick out examples of both and make a list of them in your notebooks. Give reasons why the poet uses these literary devices.

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.

a.      What did the poet regret?
i) He regretted showing hospitality to a snake.
ii) He regretted offering the snake milk.
iii) He regretted hitting the snake with a log.
iv) He regretted that he let the snake go.

b.      Why does the poet say how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act?
i) because the snake bit the poet, though he showed hospitality to the snake.
ii) because the snake went back into its hole without showing any obligation to the poet.
iii)because the poet hit the snake though it didn’t cause any harm to him.
iv)none of the above.

c) Why did the poet accursed his human education?
i)because it had taught him to be kind to animals.
ii)because it had not taught him how to distinguish between a poisonous and a non-poisonous snake.
iii)because it had taught him that snake is a dangerous creature and it should be killed.
iv)none of the above.

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 started with fascination.

a.      What didn’t hit him?
b.      Why did the poet hit the snake?
c.       Why did the poet stare with fascination?