Question 1.
Snakes generate both horror and fascination. Do you agree? Why? Why not?
Answer:
Snakes generate both horror and
fascination because our reasoning often misleads us. Though snakes are
creations of nature, we are afraid of them. Snakes also fascinate us but we do
not understand the beauty of nature, and being human, we have the impulse to
kill it even though we are astounded by its beauty. Snakes are found in
different colours and different sizes. They say that nature is more powerful
than human beings. But still they generate horror which is just because of
small instincts of natural world
Question 2.
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.
| What is the snake doing? | Words to describe the snake | Poet’s plea |
Answer:
| What is the snake doing? | Words to describe the snake | Poet’s plea |
|
• The snake is gliding through the water to escape the stroke of the
stick. • The snake vanishes in the green slim reeds. |
thin, long, beautiful, graceful, small, green, harmless. | to let the snake go unhurt into the reeds |
Question 3.
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.
(a) After drinking water to
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.
(b) The poet felt much like the ancient mariner who had killed the albatross
for no reason. He wishes that the snake would come back. He thinks of the
snake as a king in exile who has to be crowned again. He also regrets having
missed his opportunity of knowing and understanding one of the lords of
life.
(c) 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.
(d) A snake 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 since he had come at the trough prior to the poet.
(e) The voices of education inside the poet tell him that it was the fear
for the snake that made him refrain from killing him. However, the poet feels
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.
(f) He is guilt-ridden. He feels
that he has to atone for the meanness of his action of throwing a log at the
snake.
(g) 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.
(h) 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.
(i) The
poet instantly felt sorry for his unrefined and contemptible act and cursed
the voices of education and civilization that had shaped his thought processes
and urged him to kill the snake.
(j)
However, the poet instinctively likes the snake, treats him like a guest and
feels honoured that it had come to drink at his water trough. The poet
questions himself and wonders whether his not daring to kill the snake proved
that he was a coward and whether his desire to talk to the snake reflected his
perversity.
Answer:
The logical sequence will be:
l. – (d)
2. – (g)
3. – (a)
4. – (h)
5. – (e)
6. – (c)
7. – (f)
8. – (b)
9. – (i)
10. – (j)
Question 4.
Based on your reading of the
poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct options:
(a) ‘he lifted his head from his drinking as cattle do’—The poet wants to
convey that the snake
(i) is
domesticated
(ii) is innocent
(iii) is as harmless as cattle
(iv)
drinks water just like cattle
Answer:
(iii) is as harmless as cattle
(b) ‘Sicilian July’, ‘Etna smoking’ and ‘burning bowels of the earth’ are
images that convey that
(i) there are
snakes in volcanic areas
(ii) the poet
lived in a hot area
(iii) it was a really
hot day when the snake came
(iv) Sicilian
snakes are dangerous
Answer:
(iii) it was a really hot day when the snake came
(c) ‘A sort of horror, a sort of protest overcame me’—The poet is filled with
protest because
(i) he doesn’t want to
let the snake remain alive
(ii) he fears
the snake
(iii) he doesn’t want the snake
to recede into darkness
(iv) he wants to
kill it so that it doesn’t return
Answer:
(iv) he wants to kill it so
that it doesn’t return
(d) In the line ‘And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and
entered farther the phrase ‘snake-easing his shoulders’ means
(i) loosening its shoulders
(ii)
slipping in with majestic grace
(iii)
moving slowly
(iv) moving fast
Answer:
(iii) moving slowly
(e) ‘He seemed to me like a king in exile …’ The poet refers to the snake as
such to emphasize that the snake
(i) is
like a king enduring banishment
(ii) is
like a king due to be crowned
(iii) is a
majestic king who came for a while on earth
(iv) is a majestic creature forced to go into exile by man
Answer:
(iv) is a majestic creature
forced to go into exile by man
(f) ‘I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act’— The poet is referring
to
(i) the snake going into the dreadful
hole
(ii) the accursed modern
education
(iii) the act of throwing a log
of wood at the snake
(iv) the act of
killing the snake
Answer:
(iii) the act of throwing a log of wood at the snake
Question 5.
Answer the following
questions briefly:
(a) 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.)
Answer:
The poet decides to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking
because he thinks that the snake came before him. The poet stands waiting with
his pitcher ‘I came down with my pitcher’ and feels that there is some guest
at the water trough. The poet feels himself honoured that someone has come to
drink water from his trough. This shows that the poet is a lover of nature who
sees the snake as a big creation of nature.
(b) 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?
Answer:
The snake that came to the water-trough down from a fissure in the earth
wall was yellow- brown slack, soft-bellied. He sipped with his straight mouth,
softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently.
(c) How does the poet describe the day and the atmosphere when he saw the
snake?
Answer:
It was a hot day. The poet came out in pyjamas because of the heat, to fill
his pitcher. It seemed to be a day of ‘Sicilian July, with Etna smoking. The
atmosphere was gloomy when the snake emerged from the fissure to drink water
at the trough.
(d) What does the poet want to convey by saying that the snake emerges from
the ‘burning bowels of the earth’?
Answer:
The poet wants to convey that
the snake came out of the dark hell. He means that the snake comes out of the
fissure from the bottom of the earth which is all dark and black as hell.
(e) Do you think the snake was conscious of the poet’s presence? How do you
know?
Answer:
The snake was not conscious of the poet’s presence for it came very
peacefully trailing his yellow-brown belly down over the edge of the stone
water trough. It rested its throat upon the bottom where the water was
dripping and sipped with his straight mouth softly into his slack long body.
(f) How do we know that the snake’s thirst was satiated? Pick out the
expressions that convey this.
Answer:
The snakes thirst was satiated for, after drinking silendy he lifted his
head ‘as catde do’ satisfied and flickered his forked tongue from his lips ‘as
one who has drunken’ and slowly proceeded to draw his slow length curving
round And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.
(g) The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience
conflicting emotions on seeing the snake?
Answer:
On seeing the snake the poet
has conflicting emotions. There is something that actually wants him to like
the snake but at the same time his education preaches him to kill it as it
might be dangerous to him. He also sees it as his guest and feels honoured
that a guest has come to drink water. Hence, he is covered with guilt after
throwing the log on the poor innocent snake.
(h) The poet is filled with horror and protest when the snake prepares to
retreat and bury itself in the “horrid black’, ‘dreadful’ hole. In the light
of this statement, bring out the irony of his act of throwing a log at the
snake.
Answer:
The snake moved slowly into the hole and suddenly the poet ‘picked up a log
and threw it at the water-trough to kill the snake’. The snake hearing the
‘clatter’ hastily moved ‘into the black hole’. The poet now regretted his
action and blamed himself for acting the way he did. He wished the snake could
come back for him to crown it like a king.
(i) 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.
Answer:
The poet is full of admiration
and respect for the snake. He respects it like a guest who has come to his
water-trough to drink water. He ‘stands and waits’ to fill his pitcher and
tells the snake to drink because it came before him. He considers him ‘like a
god’ and wishes the snake would come back so that he could crown him ‘like a
king’. He feels he had missed his ‘chance with one of the lords’, when the
snake recedes back into its hole.
(j) 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.
Answer:
When the snake comes to the
water-trough he ‘trails his yellow-brown soft-belly’ smoothly down
silently. And when he has drunk the water he looked around like a god slowly
proceeding to go into the fissure but when the poet picked up a ‘clumsy log’
and threw at the snake it ‘writhed like lightning and was gone into the black
hole’.
(k) 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?
Answer:
After hitting the snake the poet has feelings of self-derision, guilt and
regret. He blames the voice of education that lures him to hit the snake. He
thinks how ‘paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!’ He despises himself and his
inner voice curses human education’.
(l) 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?
Answer:
The poet places the blame on the voice of education for his action to have
tempted him into hitting the snake and hopes he need not pay for his negative
action like the sailor that killed ‘the albatross’. The poet wishes the snake
to come back for him to crown it like a king but believes it would never do so
and sees it ‘like a king in exile’.
(m) T have something to expiate’-Explain.
Answer:
Although the poet hits the
snake under the influence of his education he feels sorry and wishes the snake
would come back so the poet could crown it like a king but he misses the
chance. He thinks he has to make amends for this petty mistake.
Question 6.
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 his diary.
Answer:
I have a reaction of fear and fascination for the snake. There is a conflict
between my natural feelings and my rational thinking. I have feelings of
affection as if crushed by our social education. My reasoning often misleads
me. Although 1 hit the snake under the influence of my education, yet I feel
sorry for my mean act. So my natural instinct prevails in the end.
By nature I am sympathetic, considerate and peace loving but education turns me into a brute and kills the natural man in me. I mean to say this education also makes me egoistic and selfish which urges me to kill the snake to satisfy my social needs.
The nature of the conflict which grips my mind at the sight of the snake draws the conflict between the use of rational powers and intuitive powers. I listen to my rational voice and attack the snake only to regret my mean and vulgar act.
My education with forces of ignorance, cruelty and barbarity makes me think
that our rationality and intellect produce in us fears, doubts and
superstitions.
It is our instinctive
nature which prompts us to do the acts of goodness.
Question 7.
Alliteration is the
repetition of sounds in words, usually the first sound. Sibilance is a special
form of alliteration using the softer consonants that create hissing sounds,
or sibilant sounds. These consonants and digraphs include s, sh, th, ch, z, f,
x, and soft c.
Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents for a rhetorical or artistic effect of bringing out the full flavor of words. The sounds literally make the meaning in such words as “buzz,” “crash,” “whirr,” “clang” “hiss,” “purr,” “squeak,” etc.lt Is also used by poets to convey their subject to the reader. For example, In the last lines of Sir Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Come Down, O Maid’, m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring Insects:
… the moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Notice how 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 ffas the poet used these devices? How has it added to your
understanding of the subject of the poem? You may record your understanding of
snake characteristics under the following headings:
(a) Sound
(b) Movement
(c) Shape
Answer:
(a) Sound:
- He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently-Alliteration (sibilance)
(b) Movement:
- And flickered his two forked tongue from his tips and mused a moment – Alliteration.
- And depart peaceful, pacified and thankless into the burning bowels of the earth. – Alliteration.
(c) Shape:
- And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down over the edge of the stone trough. – Alliteration (sibilance)
- Being garth-brown earth-golden, from the burning bowels of the earth.
Question 8.
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.
Answer:
| Repetition | Simile |
| • And must wait, must stand and wait | • as cattle do, as drinking cattle do |
| • to feel so honoured I felt so honoured | • Lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do |
| • And slowly and slowly very slowly | • He had come like a guest in quiet. |
| • I was afraid | • And lifted his head dreamily, as one who has tongue. |
| • I was most afraid | • And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air |
| • from the burning bowels of the earth | • And looked around like a God |
| • Into the burning bowels of the earth |
• writhed like lightning • he seemed to me again like a king. |