Summary of Poem "THE SNAKE"

Summary of Poem The Snake

He poem is more or less like an ode, celebrating the encounter of the poet with a snake that came as a trespass into his domain for water. The poem starts by revealing the event, the time and the atmosphere. The snake in satisfying its urge for water went to the poets “water – trough” on “hot day”. Also, the poet who is the owner of the water through came for the same purpose in his pyjamas to avoid the “heat”. The poet is said to be coming from his “strange – scented shade” with a “pitcher” in his hand. On getting to his water – through, meeting the snake, he sees it as an obligation to “stand and wait” for the snake because it was there before it. The snake whose origin was from a fissure in the earth –wall, slitherslowly with its “yellow – brown” “soft belly” to the “edge of the stone trough”. The stone rested its “throat upon the stone bottom” and started drinking softly its mouth into “his slack long body”. The poet referred to himself s a “second comer” waiting for the snake to finish drinking. The poet while watching observed its mode of drinking and described it as that of cattle. The poet said inline 15 – 19 that the snake “lifted is throat from his drinking, as cattle do, and

Looked at him vaguely, as drinking cattle do” All these the snake did without giving notice or concentration to whom might be watching. The poet recollected the “voice” of his education and said to him that he must kill the snake, “for in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold a re ve nomo us ”. Th is implies that th e poet beli efs that bl ac k snakes ar e harmless while gold snakes are harmful, making an allusion to “Sicilian July “and “Etna smoking”, which are both historical events. The echo of his voices empted him to kill the snake if he were really a man, but which he latter refused, believing that the snake should “should seek hospitality” in him. For sparing the snake, the poet felt so honoured.The snake having considered been hospitalized, “drank enough and lifted its head” “and flickered his tongue”. After reaching the peak of its satisfaction, the snake turned around slowly with its long curved body towards the direction of it s orig in . The snake moved in slowly into th e hole wi th ou t any fe ar . Suddenly, the poet looked around and put down his pitcher, “picked up c lumsy log and threw it at the water-trough”. This was done to kill the snakebut it did not. The snake hearing the “clatter” hastily moved in its remaining body “into the black hole”. At t he di s ap peara nc e of the snake, t he po et re g re t te d h is ac t io n immediately and blamed himself for acting the way he did. He placed the blame on the voice of his education to have lured him into it and feared not to pay forhis negative action like the sailor that killed “the albatross”. The poet afterregretting wished the snake could come back for him to crown it like a king but believed it would never do so and sees it “like a king in exile”. The poet concluded by feeling that he has to make an amendment.