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How is personification used in the poem "Snake"?
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In "Snake," personification is used by attributing human qualities to the snake, describing it as a "guest" and someone who "mused a moment." The snake is portrayed as having the advanced ability to think and feel, and is even compared to a king. This use of personification emphasizes the theme of human solidarity with the animal kingdom, suggesting empathy and respect for all life forms.
Lawrence attributes human and even godlike qualities to the snake, calling it his "guest," saying that the snake "mused a moment," and imagining that it is seeking his "hospitality." The reptile is moreover described as turning his head in "as if thrice in a dream." It looks around "like a god, unseeing, into the air."
The speaker both fears the snake and, although he knows it's dangerous, seems to pity it as well, and then regrets his clumsy attempt to kill it by throwing a log at it. He then likens the snake to the albatross, presumably of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which the mariner needlessly kills, and in doing so brings misfortune upon himself and his shipmates. The speaker regards the snake as having even further human qualities in believing that it feels a "sort of horror" at having to return to the darkness of the earth...
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after coming up to drink at the water trough.
Lawrence's theme, like Coleridge's, is probably that of a wish for human solidarity with the animal kingdom, and with all life on earth. If a dangerous reptile can be sympathized with, if it has feelings (to put it simply) like those of human beings, then it is wrong to kill any living thing.
D. H. Lawrence uses personification throughout his poem “Snake.” In order use this literary device he gives human qualities to the snake, and speaks about it as if it is a person. The narrator describes the snake as “someone” instead of as an animal.
Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second comer, waiting.
The description of the snaking drinking water uses personification as the water goes down its throat. Lawrence says that the snake drinks the water, looks around, and stops to “muse” for a moment. This means that the snake has the advanced ability to think, which is a human quality. In the seventh stanza he refers to the snake as a “guest” and in a later stanza the narrator states he is “honoured” the snake “should seek my hospitality.” This refers to the snake as a person who comes to visit.
Finally, the narrator personifies the snake by comparing it to a king.
For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.