Answer the following questions:
Which words in the poem describe the characteristics of the snake in the poem ‘Hunting Snake ’
Answers
Answer:
Hunting Snake is a poem about two people witnessing a wild snake in pursuit of its prey. The event is over in a short time yet their reaction to the snake's presence seems to be profound. Their day is altered, their breath is affected.
This phenomenon, of meeting a snake about its daily business and being in awe, isn't unique to the continent of Australia, where this poem is set.
Think of a snake poem and the name D.H.Lawrence comes to mind. His longer poem Snake, set in Sicily, is a classic. His snake came for a drink of water, Judith Wright's snake is on the hunt. Quite natural actions you might say, followed by extraordinary human reaction.
Both poems, though very different in form, do share this common ground, and there is the suggestion that Lawrence's earlier poem influenced Judith Wright's.
Hunting Snake on first read through appears simple and straightforward. Four stanzas, all quatrains, with regular full rhyme, save for the last stanza. A clear narrative, with a nod to Robert's Frost's sound of sense and rhythm, and relatively easy to understand language.
Perhaps this is deceptive because the poem's apparent innocence - two people see a snake - easy on the eye rhyming quatrains - hides the idea of innocence being lost.
The speaker and friend/companion/partner, we're never sure, could be just two locals out for a stroll in the Australian outback (countryside). Judith Wright was brought up in New South Wales, her family being pioneers of the New England area, so being 'out in the sticks' was second nature to her.
Symbolically, the setting could be the Garden of Eden, the two people Adam and Eve, the snake none other than Satan. It doesn't take much of a stretch to view this poem as a snapshot of a biblical scene - the two humans in awe, their breathing affected, the silent tempter making sure his presence is felt and not forgotten.
A theological interpretation might bring some reward but the essence of the poem is that of wild animal versus reasoning human. Both speaker and companion are affected, they are one in their reaction and it is this fact that reinforces the raw power nature has, the hold it possesses over our psyches.
Judith Wright loved the natural world, a lot of her poetry reflects this. Some of her bird poems in particular are insightful and intuitive. Not only was she a campaigner for a greener world but she stood up for the native aboriginals in Australia too.
One literary commentator, John Tranter, wrote this of her:
'What she has left us is a spiritual body of writing and a model for a humane and committed concern for the future of the human race.'