"Snake"; D.H. Lawrence | Teen Ink

"Snake"; D.H. Lawrence

February 19, 2010
By jdeluca GOLD, Bedford, New York
jdeluca GOLD, Bedford, New York
11 articles 0 photos 7 comments

“Snake”, a poem by D.H. Lawrence, talks about how nature is sacred and no one has the power to take that away from him. His use of imagery in this poem is amazing. An example of very powerful imagery is in the ninth line where everyone should really picture how the snake, "..trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of/the stone trough…" and feel the softness of his belly. Another example of imagery is where you could hear the silence as he, "Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,/ Silently" As well as imagery, theme is also shown various times throughout the poem.

There is one main theme throughout this poem; everything in nature is sacred. Although in Sicily one is ordered to kill these snakes, D.H. Lawrence does not because he grows fond of them and believes that although the snake is venomous, it is still part of nature. In literature and throughout history snakes are viewed as a bad omen and a sign of evil, such as in the story of Adam and Eve, but D.H. Lawrence believes that they mean no harm. This is what is very interesting about his poetry because even though he knew many would scrutinize this poem for adoring snakes, viewing them as, "…one of the lords Of life.", and how he, "…felt so honored." in its presence, he still wrote it.



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mikeyy123 said...
on Sep. 8 2016 at 6:59 am
thank you.. i loked around thousands of websites and then i fnally found this :)

alokk said...
on Dec. 18 2015 at 11:40 pm
On the track u are bro....