Hunting Snake Essay

1141 Words5 Pages
Hunting Snake - Judith Wright Hunting Snake Judith Wright Summary of the poem: The author writes about her dangerous encounter with a snake as she and her companion (who remains unnamed) were taking a stroll in the beautiful autumn weather. This poem is allegorical yet realistic, as it can be interpreted in many ways. Significant poetic devices and their significance Looking at the structure: 1. Consistent rhyme scheme (ABAB) which is destroyed at the last stanza when the rhyme scheme changes (ABCA). This could indicate a sudden shock when put in the perspective of the poet upon realising what a dangerous experience it was only AFTER the incident. The fact that it starts to rhyme towards the end shows that the poet is already starting to get her thoughts back in order, illustrating how little of an impact this snake had on her life in the long run. The fact that she could maintain the rhyme scheme to that point also demonstrates that she was forcing herself to keep calm throughout the whole time and it was only after the incident that she allowed herself to panic a little. 2. Organised four-line-a-stanza structure. Verifies the poet’s ability to keep calm and not let her whole composure slip throughout the event, even when her rhyme scheme does. Literary level analysis 1. Caesura found in the first stanza in the third line. “we walked, and froze half-thought a pace.” a. The use of the caesura is to create a sudden stop in the reading pace of the reader to emphasize on how similarly the reader stop reading for a moment, the poet freezes when put in the situation described. This is used as a tool by the poet to create a deeper sense of empathy as the reader experiences something closer to the poet at that point described in the poem. Note that there were no full stops or any form of punctuation before the full stop and
Open Document