Snake (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: D. H. Lawrence
- First Published: 1921
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Snakes, Courage, Sin or Original sin, Animals, Animals, dangerous, Cowards or cowardliness, Summer
The Poem
“Snake” is a seventy-four-line free-verse poem divided into nineteen verse paragraphs (stanzas of unequal length). Like many modern lyrics, it incorporates a narrative element, recording the poet’s encounter with a snake at his water-trough. Through this structure and carefully mobilized imagery, the poet reveals his conflicted, deepening consciousness, which moves from casual description to epiphanic confession. Written when D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda were living in Taormina, Sicily, in 1920-1921, the poem is derived from Lawrence’s actual experience...
[The entire page is 1520 words long]
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