Snake by D.H. Lawrence // Rainbow Part-2 Poetry Chapter-9

 

Snake

-D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence’s Biography

    1.       David Herbert Lawrence was born on 11 September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England.

    2.       D. H. Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter.

    3.       His father name was Arthur John Lawrence.

    4.       His important works include A Collection of Poems (1909), The White Peacock (1911), The Trespasser (1912), Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915), Plumed Serpent (1926), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1926).

    5.       D. h. Lawrence died on 2 March 1930.

SNAKE EXPLANATION

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in Pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.

In the deep, strange scented shade of the great dark carobtree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.

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 though his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently.

Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
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
On the day of Sicilian July with Etna smoking.

The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous

And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,
But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And fiickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole.
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after.
Overcame me now his back was turned.

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water trough with a clatter.

I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightening, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth lipped fissure in the wall front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

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.

And I thought of the albatross,
And I wished he would come back, my snake.

For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness

SNAKE SUMMARY

The poem snake is written by D.H. Lawrence. The incident on which the poem is composed is quite and simple and natural. One hot afternoon, in Sicily, the poet got up to collect the water from the trough which lay in the open ground. When he reached the spot he noticed a large brown snake resting its throat on the trough’s edge. Fascinated over this sight of the snake, the poet stood watching it for a long time. He rather realized that he was second to be there and he had to wait till the snake had quenched its thirst. The poet had learnt that the goldensnakes in Sicily were poisonous and so they should be killed. Brushing aside those doubts and personal concerns the poet continued to watch the snake in its natural act quenching its thirst. And finally the snake withdrew itself and proceeded to move back into the dark hole, its dwelling place.
Suddenly under a cowardly impulse the poet hurled a log at it. It missed the snake but it produced a feeling of terror in it, reflected in its haste. Afterwards the poet deeply regretted his mindless act of aggression.

SNAKE OBJECTIVE QUESTION

1.       Who is the speaker in the poem ‘Snake’?
a) Donne
b)Lawrence
c)Kamala
d)Keats

2.       The speaker in the poem ‘Snake’ considered himself a ________ comer to the water trough.
a)first
b)second
c)third
d)fourth

3.       The speaker confessed that he ________.
a)liked the snake
b)feared
c)hated the snake
d)none

4.       How golden snake according to Sicilian.
a)innocent
b)venomous
c)non-venomous
d)none of these

5.       The coulour of the snake in the poem is ________.
a)black
b)golden
c)silver
d)yellow

6.       Who is ‘He’ in the poem ‘Snake’?
a)poet
b)tree
c)snake
d)pitcher

7.       In ________ it is believed that a golden snake if seen anywhere must be killed.
a)Sicily
b)Darbhanga
c)America
d)Bihar

8.       The snake sipped water with his ________.
a)round mouth
b)curved mouth
d) straight mouth
d)closed mouth

9.       What did the voice of poet’s education say about snake?
a)love
b)hate
d)kill
d)remember

10.    ‘Snake’ is written by ________.
a)D.H. Lawrence
b)Walt Whitman
c)Walter de la Mare
d) John Donne

11.    D.H. Lawrence was born in ________.
a)1885
b)1880
c)1890
d)1890

12.    The phrase ‘a king of exile’ in the poem ‘Snake’ stands for ________.
a)the rat
b)the elephant
c)the snake
d)the poet

13.    After hitting the snake with a log the speaker of the poem ‘Snake’ wants to ________.
a)enjoy
b)expiate
c)celebrate
d)none of these

14.    The snake came to the poet’s water-trough on a ________ day.
a)hot
b)rainy
c)cold
d)spring

15.    In ________ according to the poem ‘Snake’ black snakes are considered innocent.
a)England
b)Sicily
c)Italy
d)Darbhanga

16.    The speaker in the poem ‘Snake’ hits the snake with ________.
a)a hunter
b)a log
c)a rod
d)a stick

17.    The speaker of the poem ‘Snake’ compares the snake with the sea-albatross of ________.
a)’The Ancient Mariner’
b)’The Scholar Gipsy’
c)’Lycidas’
d)none of these

18.    D.H. Lawrence died in ________
a)1930
b)1990
c)1992
d)1999

19.    D.H. Lawrence was born in the village of ________ in Nottinghamshire.
a)Charlton
b)Eastwood
c)West Hills
d)none

20.    In the poem ‘Snake’ Lawrence denounces the artificialities of ________ life.
a)ancient
b)medieval
c)modern
d)none

21.    The poet had gone to the water trough to drink ________.
a)tea
b)coffee
c)water
d)milk

22.    The poet compares the snake to a ________ bird, albatross.
a)river
b)sea
c)pond
d)ocean

23.    A ________ is mentioned in the poem ‘Snake’.
a)mango tree
b)peepal tree
c)carob tree
d)banana tree

24.    The speaker had a desire to talk to ________.
a)cat
b)rat
c)snake
d)dog

25.    D.H. Lawrence was a ________.
a) poet & novelist
b)short story writer
c) a and b
d)none

26.    “The White Peacock” is written by ______.
a)John Donne
b)Anita Desai
c)D.H. Lawrence
d)John Keats

27.    “The White Peacock” was published in ________.
a)1911
b)1993
c)1910
d)1915

28.    “Sons and Lovers” is written by ________.
a)John Donne
b)Anita Desai
c)D.H. Lawrence
d)Walt Whitman

29.    “Sons and Lovers” was published in ________.
a)1913
b)1915
c)1917
d)1902

30.    A ________ came to D.H. Lawrence’s water trough.
a)donkey
b)horse
c)snake
d)dog

31.    The poet was wearing ________.
a)Pyjama
b)T. Shirt
c)Sweater
d)Pant

32.    The poet had gone to the water trough to drink ________.
a)water
b)juice
c)wine
d)nothing

33.    A snake appears on a trough of the ________ to sip.
a)plumber
b)sweeper
c)poet
d)snake

34.    The snake met the poet near his water ________.
a)trough
b)tumbler
c)pitcher
d)none

35.    The snake seemed like a ________ in exile.
a)prince
b)king
c)jack
d)dog

36.    Etana is in ________.
a)Sicily
b)Agra
c)Moscow
d)America

37.    The snake looked at the poet ________.
a)happily
b)sadly
c)vaguely
d)none

38.    ‘The voice of my education said to me he must be killed’ these line are taken from ________.
a)The Soldier
b)Fire-Hymn
c)Snake
d)Song of Myself

39.    ‘He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do’ is written by ________.
a)T.S. Eliot
b)D.H. Lawrence
c)Rupert Brooke
d)Walt Whitman

SNAKE LINE EXPLANATION    

        1.       “A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I am in Pyjamas for the heat, To drink there.”
Ans. One day the poet felt thirty and he came down to drink water. As came out he saw a black cobra coming out of the carob tree and approaching the water trough to drink water. The poet was carrying a pitcher but he preferred to wait since the snake had reached the water trough.