why dose the poet repeat the word mounting and why are the birds in haste
Answers
D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, is one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation.
Some of the issues Lawrence explores are emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his "savage pilgrimage“(Autobiography of the poet).
Snake Poem Summary CBSE Class 10 - Background and Summary
Poem and Explanation
A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
Water trough: a vessel which holds water
Carob tree: a red flowered tree originally in the Mediterranean area
Pitcher: tall, round container with an open top and a large handle
The poet says that once upon a time on a very hot day, a snake came to his water trough in the garden to quench its thirst. The poet was wearing his pyjamas and he had also gone to the trough to get some water for himself. The air was filled with the shade and the fragrance of the carob tree that stood in the garden. The poet was holding a pitcher to fill as he descended the stairs and walked towards the trough.
Literary devices –
1. Alliteration – ‘strange-scented shade’ – ‘s’ sound is repeated
2. Repetition – ‘On a hot, hot day’ – ‘hot’ is repeated to lay emphasis
3. Epithet – ‘strange-scented shade’ – the adjective – ‘strange – scented’ is used with ‘shade’ but it refers to the carob tree.
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.
He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of
the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped
from the tap, in a small clearness,
fissure: crack
gloom: darkness
yellow-brown slackness: The yellow – brown coloured body of the snake moved slowly
soft-bellied down: The snake’s belly is soft and slimy and is turned upside down. Clearness: puddle of clear water.
The poet thought that he must wait for his turn to fill the pitcher as the snake was there at the trough before him. The snake crawled out of a small crack in the wall. It was dark inside. Its yellow – brown coloured body crawled slowly, the soft belly of the snake moved over the edge of the trough made of stone. The snake rested its throat upon the base of the stony edge of the trough where water had dripped from the tap and got collected in a small puddle.
Literary devices -
Alliteration – ‘brown slackness soft-bellied’ – ‘b’ and ‘s’ sound is repeated
Repetition – ‘must’ is repeated to emphasize that it was mandatory for him to wait for his turn.
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight
gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.
Someone was before me at my water trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.
He lifted his head from his drinking, as
cattle do,
slack: loose, lazy
The snake sipped the water through its soft mouth. It was silent as it drank the water which flowed through its gums into its long body. The poet says that someone was there at his water trough before him and he had to wait for his turn. When it drank some water, it paused drinking and turned its head to look around just like cattle do.
Snake Poem Explanation and Literary devices of - CBSE Class 10
Literary devices –
1. Simile