Lawrence, D. H. - George Y. Trail (essay date 1979)

George Y. Trail (essay date 1979)

SOURCE: "The Psychological Dynamics of D. H. Lawrences's 'Snake'," in American Imago, Vol. 36, No. 4, Winter, 1979, pp. 345-56.

[In the following essay, Trail employs Freudian psychology to explicate Lawrence's poem "The Snake."]

"Snake" is D. H. Lawrence's best known poem. It is not only the most anthologized (and hence the most taught) but also the most analyzed. A glance at the poem itself provides some immediate, if only surface, explanations:

The poem has a narrative line. A man, on a hot noon in Italy, comes to fill his water pitcher from a trough and finds a snake there. For an interval, in spite of the "voice" of his education which tells him the snake is dangerous and should be killed, he is fascinated and feels honored by the snake's presence. However, as the snake turns to leave the speaker is overcome with horror and throws a log at it. He immediately regrets the act, curses the voice...

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