Question

what are the literary devices used in the poem "snake" by d.h. lawrence???

Answer 1

  Literary Devices are verbal structures employed by writers in their works to convey message of their works in a simple and clear manner to the readers. Literary devices used rightly enhance the beauty, appeal, and impact of the literary work.

The following literary devices have been used in the poem, ‘The Snake’:

 

Literary Device        Example

Metaphor              1.And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down

                              2.from the burning bowels of the earth

                              3.going into the blackness

                               4.the earth-lipped fissure

                               5.one of the lords Of life

 

Simile                      1.And I, like a second comer, waiting

                                2.He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do

                                3.he had come like a guest

                                4.flickered his tongue like a forked night

                                5. looked around like a god

                                6.Writhed like lightning

                                7.he seemed to me again like a king

 

Alliteration                1.And flickered  his two-forked

                                 2. from the burning bowels of the earth

Answer 2

Personification:  The snake is personified by the poet in this poem.

Simile:  “When a comparison is made between two different things”, it is known as the simile.

He uses simile when he compares the snake to cattle. 

“He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,”

He also uses in the “twelfth stanza” “And looked around like a god,”

“For he seemed to me again like a king,” in the eighteenth stanza.

Anaphora: The repetition of a word or set of words at the beginning of a line in a stanza is known as Anaphora.  Here, it is used in the stanza where he starts with “Was it cowardice,....."

Onomatopeia is otherwise known as the sound word.  The spelling of the word reflects the sound of the word like, “bomb”.  Here, the word “clatter” is used.  “I picked up a clumsy log and threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.”