Question

about the snail poem

Answer 1

◆ ◆ 【 The Snail Poem】◆ ◆

The snail poem written by an great poet of present and past era .The Snail by William Cowper .To grass or leaf or fruit or wall The snail sticks close nor fears to fall As if he is not un-social, he is energetically anti-social. In the snail, sensibility doubles back on itself. ... In fact, the snail much resembles the poet of sensibility, "Well satisfied to be his own/ Whole treasure"; this could even be Clarissa Harlowe.

Answer 2

William Cowper, "The Snail" (1731)

To grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall,
The snail sticks close, nor fears to fall,
As if he grew there, house and all
Together................

summary:

No doubt the snail is a creature of anti-sensibility, but in the most romanticized sense. That is, the snail is not one of the scuttling crowd who, fearful of vis-a-vis contact with others, make their way conventionally through life, lonely but in good company. Instead, the snail is a prince of sorts. He is not homeless; he has his house, which not only secures him, but stands as a frightful dominion of power. The snail is not un-social, he is energetically anti-social. In the snail, sensibility doubles back on itself. The self-collecting power which facilitates a full retreat at the mere touch of the horns must be read as over-sensibility, not insensibility. In fact, the snail much resembles the poet of sensibility, "Well satisfied to be his own/ Whole treasure"; this could even be Clarissa Harlowe. Cowper represents how easily a sensible withdrawal from society can turn into a feeding frenzy. Sensibility can speak for or against integration into the social--in a sense it builds its own crises as fast as it finds solutions--this is the case for the snail.