Question

Summary of the poem "SNAKE"
para wise summary required

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Answer 1

The poet describes his encounter with a snake on a very hot summer day. He had been
wearing pajamas in order to keep himself cool. He was thirsty so he went to the trough to
fetch some water. He found that a snake had already come to the water-trough.
The poet had kept his trough in the shade of a large carob tree and could feel a strange smell
all over the place. The poet had to wait to get to the pitcher as the snake was already
drinking water from there.
In this stanza, the poet describes how the snake came out from a crack in the wall of his
house and how it slithered leisurely over the edge of the trough and finally came to rest with
its throat on the bottom of the stone trough. Water had fallen in drops from the tap, forming
a small and transparent pool, from where the snake was drinking it silently and the poet
could imagine the water going down its long and flexible body.
Generally the poet was the only one to drink water from that trough but that particular day,
he had to wait as a second-comer for his turn to drink water.
In this stanza, the poet describes how the snake stopped drinking water and looked at him.
He compared it to the cattle, who while drinking water, pause a moment and look here and
there. The snake moved his forked tongue from side to side and continued drinking water.
The poet imagines it to be a Typhoon, the mythical and monstrous serpent, that was finally
defeated by Zeus, by throwing burning Mount Etna on it.
The poet further says that, according to the knowledge he got when he was in Sicily, the
black snakes are harmless but the golden ones are much poisonous. So he must kill that
golden snake that had come to his trough.
The poet could hear some voices in his head, provoking him to kill the snake, so as to prove
his masculinity.
But the poet had started liking the snake, who had come to his trough to drink water as a
guest. He believed that the snake would soon go away from there, peacefully and vanish intothe depths of the earth, from where he had emerged.
The poet wonders what had stopped him from killing the snake, whether he was a coward or
was it some natural affinity with the snake. But in the end of his thoughts, he believed it to be
a honor that he had a snake as a visitor.
But, he still can hear his inner voice telling him to conquer his fear and kill the snake.
The poet confesses that he was afraid of the snake but also felt honored to know that the
snake had chosen his trough to visit while rising out of the earth. The poet should also show
some hospitality towards the snake.
The poet further describes how, after the snake had finished drinking water, it had lifted its
head and made quick movements of its tongue as if it were licking its lips in satisfaction and
that its thirst had been quenched. It then raised its head and looked around as if a lord, then
slowly turned its head and its body began to ascent over the crack in the wall from which it
had come.
The poet felt bad when he saw it putting its head in the crack of the wall and then slowly
slithered its rest of the body in after that.
As a protest, the poet desperately threw a stick on the trough, to stop the snake from leaving.
The poet thought that the stick did not hit the snake but he was wrong. The snake speeded its
motion and disappeared into the crack of the wall in a flash. In spite of such a hot day, the
poet kept standing there and looked at the crack in the wall with fascination.
The poet, immediately, was filled with regret that he had acted in such a cruel way and
cursed his knowledge and inner voices that had asked him to kill the snake.
He felt like the ancient mariner, who had killed the albatross for no reason and wished that
the snake would come back to the trough once again.
The poet felt that the snake was a king, who was not crowned beneath the surface of the
earth, where it lives. The poet, however, thinks that it would be crowned shortly, as he was
fascinated by the presence of the snake who seemed to him like a king.
The poet regrets that he missed a chance to welcome a lord of life into his home and he mus t apologise for his petty behaviour in this matter.

$hope \: this \: helps$