The Snake, D. H. Lawrence

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The Snake In the poem The Snake by D. H. Lawrence there are many different forms of symbolism found within the poem and many different interpretations of the poem itself. There are those who believe that it is a vision of man vs. nature, and also those who believe that it is about the beauty of nature. In any case the true beauty of this poem is how simple a story it is and how complex and numerous its interpretations are. The poem starts very quickly in the first stanza saying that a snake was drinking from a man’s water-trough on a very hot day just as he was going to get a drink still in his pajamas with his pitcher in hand. The snake was hanging down from a crack in a stone wall next to the trough as it was drinking from it. The narrator notes in this stanza that the snake has a yellow-brown color to it. In the third stanza the snake notices the man and looks up but does not retreat. The man then thinks back to what he has been taught his whole life about how the brown snakes are poisonous and the black snakes are the safe ones. He reasons that he must find a way to kill the snake. He then tells himself that if he were really a man he would take up a stick and kill it, but he realizes that even though it is a deadly snake he liked it. He thought of the snake as a guest who had come just to take a drink and then leave. The man then wonders if it is cowardice that is keeping him from killing it. As he keeps thinking to himself he comes across the realization that he feels honored that this snake would choose his water-trough to drink from. And yet he was still battling the voices of the past telling him that if he was a man he would kill the beast. In the next stanza while the man is deep in thought the snake finishes drinking and starts to turn itself around and go back through the hole it came from. As the snake begins to leave the man

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