of Genesis. Voices inside the poet's head keep telling him to kill the snake, suggesting that it would be cowardly not to do so. Yet he does not want to kill the snake. The snake is doing him no harm. He looks at it as a naturalist, observing it and finding it beautiful.

Eventually, when the snake is leaving the trough anyway, the poet picks up a "clumsy log" and hurls it in his direction. It does not appear to hit the snake, but he departs underground in undignified haste. The poet then records his regret.

I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

This description of the poet's conduct as paltry, vulgar, and mean is in direct contrast with the stateliness and grandeur of the snake. It is here that he is described as 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.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords

Of life.

And I have something to expiate:

A pettiness.

The snake is described as a king, then as a lord, to provide contrast with the poet's pettiness and vulgarity. Lawrence's descriptions are an inversion of the way people normally see such matters. The snake is usually portrayed in art and literature as the abject creature, crawling on its belly. It is the man who is the lord of life, the earthly king created in the image of God. Lawrence sees the opposite of this in the snake's natural grace and his own capitulation to the destructive norms of human civilization.