Snake- a Moment of Consciouness

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Snake : A moment of consciousness In this free verse poem Snake, DH Lawrence examines the conflict between education or accepted attitudes, and the desires the people often hold. In fact, the poem develops around the speaker's unexpected meeting with a snake a feeling of fear mixed with fascination as he is left with the internal struggle between the rational and his natural feelings. First Lawrence's reaction was expectancy because he « must wait, must stand and wait » which creates an insistance on these words by a repetition and emphasized by an enjambement at the end of the line. By this expectancy, he bears his deep mark of respect because the snake « was at the trough before » him. Moreover, the respect that he has towards the snake is showed by different personifications the poet uses like simply called « He » whereas it is an animal. Indeed, he assigns to the snake some human characteristics like « his lips » and when « he sipped with his straight mouth ». However, the narrator is faced up to a moment of hesitation and anguish. In fact, he knows that the snake is dangerous because « in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous ». « The voice of [his] education », perhaps from Lawrence's strict Victorian childhood, perhaps his difficult father or perhaps from the cold pragmatic realism of the Sicilian farmer, tells him that he should destroy the snake, but he cannot. He does not want to harm it because he « liked him » and was glad « he had come like a guest in the quiet » where we also have a personification of the snake, treated like a guest. Nevertheless, the symbolism of the snake cannot be ignored and suggests that Lawrence may have been exploring something other than simply this snake. Associated with evil and Satan, the snake assumes a more omnious meaning. Indeed, the snake comes « from the burning bowels of the earth
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