The poem describes a snake that comes to drink water from the narrator's trough on a hot day. The narrator watches as the snake drinks, its tongue flickering. Though the narrator was taught that snakes in Sicily must be killed, he finds that he likes the snake and is glad of its peaceful visit. The poem explores man's relationship with nature and questions societal conventions of killing snakes.

3. WILLIAM
SHAKESPEAR
Born Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date
unknown)
Stratford-upon-
Avon,Warwickshire, England
Died 23 April 1616 (aged 52)
Stratford-upon-
Avon,Warwickshire, England
Occupation Playwright, poet, actor
Literary movement English Renaissance theatre
Spouse(s) Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Children •Susanna Hall
•Hamnet Shakespeare
•Judith Quiney
Relative(s) •John Shakespeare (father)
•Mary Shakespeare (mother)

4. JULIUS CAESAR THE
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM
SHAKESPEAR
Summary of the plot or story
Julius Caesar is a highly successful but ambitious political leader
of Rome and his goal is to become an unassailable dictator.
Caesar is warned that he must "beware the Ides of March" . The
prophecy comes true and Caesar is assassinated. Marcus Brutus
is a well respected Roman senator who helps plan and carry out
Caesar's assassination which he believes will rid Rome of a
tyrant. Caesar's friend Mark Antony provides the famous funeral
oration ("Friends, Romans, and countrymen…") Brutus and
Cassius meet their inevitable defeat. Brutus, the noble Roman,
whose decision to take part in the conspiracy for the sake of
freedom, plunges his country into civil war.

5. Information provided about the play
William Shakespeare never published any of his plays and therefore none of the
original manuscripts have survived. Eighteen unauthorised versions of his plays
were, however, published during his lifetime in quarto editions by unscrupulous
publishers (there were no copyright laws protecting Shakespeare and his works
during the Elizabethan era). A collection of his works did not appear until 1623 (a
full seven years after Shakespeare's death on April 23, 1616) when two of his fellow
actors, John Hemminges and Henry Condell, posthumously recorded his work and
published 36 of William’s plays in the First Folio. Some dates are therefore
approximate other dates are substantiated by historical events, records of
performances and the dates plays appeared in print.
Date first performed
It is believed that Julius Caesar was first performed between 1600 and 1601. In the
Elizabethan era there was a huge demand for new entertainment and Julius Caesar
would have been produced immediately following the completion of the play.
Date first printed
It is believed that Julius Caesar was first printed in the First Folio in 1623. As
William Shakespeare clearly did not want his work published details of the play
would have therefore been noted, and often pirated without his consent, following
a performance.

6. The settings for the drama
The settings for Julius Caesar are Verona and Mantua in Italy
The theme of the play
The play Julius Caesar is categorised as a Tragedy
Number of words in the script
The number of spoken words in Julius Caesar, according to the Complete Public
Domain Text is 20,933
Most important characters
The most important characters in the play are:
Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Brutus
Famous Quotes / Quotations
The quotes from Julius Caesar are amongst Shakespeare's most famous
including 'Beware the Ides of March' and 'Friends, Romans,
countrymen'. Details of these famous quotes follow, complete with
information regarding the Act and the Scene, allowing a quick reference
to the section of the play that these quotations can be found in. Please
click here for the full text of the script of the play.

7. History of the drama
Julius Caesar is a dramatization of actual events. He
was assassinated in 44 B.C.
It is believed that his mother endured agonising
surgery in order to extract him at birth. This belief
gave rise to the term "Caesarean birth"
William Shakespeare's Main Source for the work
Shakespeare found the story in Caesar, Parallel Lives,
by Plutarch. He may have also referred to Geoffrey
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (The Monk's Tale).
Inspiration from Julius Caesar
The drama has inspired other works such as films
starring Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston
The Cast and Characters
Click the link at the top of the page to access a list of
all the cast and characters

8. CHARECTERS OF JULIUS
CAESAR
William Shakespeare play characters
This page contains a list of the characters in Julius Caesar by William
Shakespeare. A summary of the plot and many play details can be accessed
via Julius Caesar the play by William Shakespeare. The enduring works of
William Shakespeare feature many famous and well loved characters. The
descriptions of the characters in his plays paint clear pictures which enable
the audience to fully appreciate the plots. The Characters range from comedic
to tragic. Figures from history become 'alive' through the character drawings
of William Shakespeare. Detailed below are the list of characters in Julius
Caesar
The appeal of the people that Shakespeare created
The most famous of playwrights - the most famous of plays. The plots range
from comedy to tragedy and the great male and female comic and tragic
characters who bring the plots and stories to life are the wonderful people
that the great Bard created. Not only do we remember the stories but we
remember the people - we all have our favourites. But the plays of William
Shakespeare go even further - we actually recall exactly what an individual
character says!

9. Characters in Julius Caesar
Pindarus Casca
Portia Cinna
Popilius Lena Cicero
Murellus Caius Cassius
Marcus Brutus Artemidorus
Messala Calpurnia
Metellus Cimber Caius Ligarius
Publius Cinna the Poet
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus Gaius Trebonius
Mark Antony Flavius
Octavius Caesar Lucilius
Volumnius Julius Caesar
Strato Clitus
Titinius Claudius
Varro Decius Brutus
Lucius Dardanius
Cato

10. THE TARGEDY OF JULIUS
CAESAR
Marcellus and Flavius criticize the commoners for celebrating Caesar's recent
military defeat of Pompey since they feel it's actually a sad day. During a victory
march, a soothsayer warns Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March" (March 15);
Caesar ignores him. A race is run, wherein Marc Antony, in the course of
competing, touches Caesar's wife Calphurnia in hopes of curing her infertility.
During the race, Cassius tries to convince Brutus that Caesar has become too
powerful and too popular. Brutus neither agrees nor disagrees. Caesar confers
with Antony that he fears Cassius is evil and worth fearing. Casca explains to
Brutus and Cassius that shouting they heard was caused by Caesar's thrice
refusal of a crown offered to him by Antony (though confusing, the commoners
rejoiced that he had refused it for it indicated he is a noble man). At the third
offering, Caesar collapsed and foamed at the mouth from epilepsy. Afterwards,
Caesar exiled/executed Flavius and Marcellus for pulling scarves off of Caesar's
images (statues). In a thunderstorm, Casca meets Cicero and tells him of many
ominous and fearful sights, mostly of burning images, he has seen. Cassius then
meets Cicero and tells him the storm is a good sign of the evil he and his other
cohorts plan to do to Caesar. It seems the senators plan to crown Caesar King,
but Cassius aims to prevent it, or else commit suicide. Casca agrees to help
Cassius. Cinna informs Cassius that Decius Brutus (actually Decimus),
Trebonius, and Metallus Cimber will help them to kill Caesar.

11. Cassius is trying to convince Brutus to join too. Brutus, unable to sleep, tells himself
that he fears Caesar will become a tyrant if crowned king. Cassius et al. come to
Brutus and resolve to murder Caesar the next day (March 15). Metallus also
convinces Caius Ligarius to join their cause. The men leave and Portia (Brutus' wife)
begs Brutus to tell her what is happening, but he does not (though he does tell her
before he leaves for the Senate). At Caesar's house, Calphurnia begs Caesar to stay
home for fear of danger (based on a foreboding dream and the night's storm). Holy
priests pluck the entrails of an animal and find no heart in it, another bad sign.
Caesar declares he will stay home, to calm his wive's fears. Decius, though,
convinces Caesar to come to the senate. On the way, the soothsayer Artemidorus
tries to warn Caesar of impending death, to no avail. At the Senate, Trebonius leads
Antony away from Caesar, then the conspirators murder Caesar. They cover
themselves in his blood and go to the streets crying, "Peace, freedom, and liberty."
Antony comes back and mourns Caesar's murder. Antony pretends to support the
clan, yet yearns for great havoc to occur as a result of the death. Brutus explains to
the crowd that they killed Caesar because he was too ambitious. Antony replies
with reverse psychology to incite the commoners to riot in grief over Caesar's
murder. Antony also reads them Caesar's (supposed) will, wherein he leaves money
to all the citizens, plus his private gardens. In the ensuing riots, Cinna the poet is
wrongly killed by a mob that believes him to be Cinna the conspirator.

12. Antony forms a triumvirate with Octavius Caesar and Lepidus, to rule Rome.
However, Brutus and Cassius are raising an army to defy them. Brutus learns that
his wife Portia kills herself by swallowing hot coals. Messala tells Brutus that the
triumvirate has killed 100 senators. Titinius, Messala, Brutus, and Cassius decide
to confront Antony's army at Phillipi. At Brutus' tent, the ghost of Caesar comes
and tells Brutus he will see him at Phillipi. The battle indeed ensues at Phillipi.
Cassius confers to Messala that it is his birthday and that he fears defeat. In
battle, Titinius is captured by Octavius. Cassius convinces Pindarus to help him
commit suicide. Pindarus, in grief, flees after the deed is done. In a twist, Brutus
overthrows Octavius and Cassius' army, defeating part of Antony's army. Titinius,
in grief over Cassius' death, kills himself with Cassius's sword. The battle turns
again, this time against Brutus' army. Cato is killed and Lucilius is captured,
while pretending to be Brutus. Brutus successively asks Clitus, Dardanius, and
Volumnius to help him commit suicide, yet all refuse. Brutus finally convinces
Strato to hold the sword while he (Brutus) runs onto it and dies. Thus, Antony
and Octavius prevail, while Cassius and Brutus both commit suicide, assumedly
partly in grief over murdering Caesar.

13. JUIUS CAESAR BY WILLIAM
SHAKESPEAR
William Shakespear was an English poet and an author of many
dramas and in the last years of his life also an actor. He lived in
the times when Elisabeth I and Jackob I ruled in England and
when the Queen Elizabeth Theatre came into existence. He wrote
36 plays. He also wrote historical chronicles and comedies and
tragedies, but only his chronicles described the history of
England of the XVIth century. In his dramas Shakespear often
described power as a corrupting force. William was interested in
the mechanism of power - the aim of many people. This topic
appears mostly in chronicles and tragedies along with the Julius
Ceasar. Shakespear Julius Ceasar
William
William Shakespear based his works not only on England's history, but also the
history of other countries. He was fascinated by great commanders and so he
decided to write a drama about the life of a well-known Roman leader - Julius
Ceasar. Shakespear tried to undestand the secrets of human soul and mind,
which make people hungry for power and needing control over others. He based
his conclusions on the history of past leaders and his own observations.

14. When he was writing this drama, he read a lot about Ceasar's life and
times so that his work could be as similar to his real history as possible.
As a great poet should, he introduces us in a very vivid way to the ancient
Roman world, where people are hypocritical and trying to get an office at
all costs. Shakespear describes Ceasar not only as a great leader and a
hero, who was followed by a huge army and many people, byt also as a
human being which longs for power, which leads him to solitude and
being surrounded by fake friends and political friends. Shakespear tries
to show Ceasar not only as a ruthless leader but also a human, who has to
fight his own weaknesses and face obstacles which appear in everyone's
life and finally achieve his goal.

15. THE PROBLEM OF POWER
IN SHAKESPEAR ‘S DRAMA
Like in other Shakespear's dramas, in Julius Ceasar there is a picture of a
lust for power, which leads to death. The power, that becomes so
important, that the one, who possesses it forgets about the whole world.
The power, which brings doom and not happiness and joy. The
obsessive greed of power and need of command which brings only
death to the main hero, caused by a plot created by his closest
associates - people, who he had called his friends.
The genius of Shakespear's drama
Shakespear broke the rules of the drama and was an examplar for a long time. He
has shown, that real dramas take place first of all in our life and that great works
can be based on them. He proved that not only currently living people make
excellent charachters, but also people from the past, who were considered great
only because of their historical achievements. Shakespear tried not only to show
history and lives but also find their reasons, which guided them in their lives. In
Julius Ceasar he has shown that Ceasar wasn't important as a human being, but as
a great politic and when he started to bother others, he was removed in the most
cruel way, but also the only way, which allowed other Roman leaders to get his

18. D. H. LAWERENCE
David Herbert Richards Lawrence
11 September 1885
Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England
2 March 1930 (aged 44)
Vence, France
Novelist
British
1907–1930
modernism
the social subject, travel, literary criticism
Novel: Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in
Love, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Short Story: Odour of Chrysanthemums, Daughters of the
Vicar, The Man who loved Islands
Play: The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd

19. 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
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,
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,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
.

20. The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.
And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.
But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?

21. THE POEM
“Snake” is a seventy-four-line free-verse poem divided into
nineteen verse paragraphs (stanzas of unequal length).
Like many modern lyrics, it incorporates a narrative
element, recording the poet’s encounter with a snake at his
water-trough. Through this structure and carefully
mobilized imagery, the poet reveals his conflicted,
deepening consciousness, which moves from casual
description to epiphanic confession. Written when D. H.
Lawrence and his wife Frieda were living in Taormina,
Sicily, in 1920-1921, the poem is derived from Lawrence’s
actual experience..

22. An analysis of Snake, by D.H. Lawrence
The Snake, by D.H. Lawrence narrates a man’s encounter with a snake at his
water trough. In my opinion D.H Lawrence attempts to expound upon the
internal conflicts that arise when social instruction conflicts with natural
instincts. The speaker in the poem is internally battling with his desire to
admire and befriend this creature and his opposing desire to kill it. He
observes the snake with care and pays close attention to its actions as he
states, “He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me
vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his
lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more…” As he
observes the snake the only negative feelings he explicates are those he felt
were imposed by society. The speaker purports that he should perhaps kill the
snake because that is what a “man” should do, and then immediately curses
his human education that provided him with the thought.
There is an emphasis on the indecisiveness of the speaker, as he waivers
all throughout the poem until it is too late for his opinion to matter.
When he speaks of the snake it is clear that he is pleased with the snake’s
company, while also torn as to whether or not he should interact with
nature in this way. When he states, “But must I confess how I liked
him, How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my
water-trough…’ he reveals his feeling in a way that imply a deeper sense of
guilt or shame in wanting to befriend the snake.

23. He uses the word “confess” as opposed to simply stating his feeling about the
element of nature. There is a shame that is implicated in the preservation of
nature as if it is a threat to his manhood. Even after he confesses his delight
and honor in spending time with the snake he reverts to questioning whether
or not he is a coward because he chose not to kill him.
In closing I believe it is important to note the idea of remorse of the decisions
made by the human in the poem. As a result of his indecisiveness he ends up
regretting his loss of the snake as well as cursing his human education. It was
well within his power to let the snake remain in his company but he let it get
away. Towards the end he states, “I despised myself and the voices of my
accursed human education. And I thought of the albatross, And I wished he
would come back, my snake.” Not only does he miss the snake deeply but he
refers to the snake as “my snake,” when he had previously contemplated
killing the snake. For me this poem well exemplifies the struggle of man vs.
nature. What do we owe nature on the path to preserve human life. Is it
cowardice to maintain a relationship with that animal as opposed to killing it?
When he speaks of fear, is it of the snake or of man? These are all questions
that are provoked by Lawrence’s poem.

24. The internal struggle between our natural intuition and our social
instruction.
The Snake, a poem by D.H. Lawrence examines the interior conflicts that are
placed upon man by the conflicting forces of our innocent instincts and the
Thecommonwalks from his house in the dead heat of summer to be
speaker sense of the kingdom of man
confronted head on with nature itself and caught up in a dreamlike
instant in which he faces what he feels to be truth and what other men
have told him to be reality.
The speaker begins in conflict and in innocence wearing “pajamas for
the heat.”(2)
On his way to get water to relieve the heat, he comes face to face with the
reality of nature. A golden bellied king of the earth, dressed in the colors
of his world. Not dark, to hide, but rather brilliant “earth-brown, earth-
golden from the burning bowels of the earth”(20).
The colors of this snake show that he does not hide in the jungle. He is
strong enough to walk proudly in the world and, according to the voices
in the speakers head, venomous as well (24). The speaker is suddenly
jolted into a state of dreamlike compression. The actions of the world
seem to slow down while his awareness of the world seems to increase.

25. He begins to feel his instincts which tell him that he is in the presence of
nature itself and that he is being honored with its presence (34) while he also
hears the voices of men which tell him that he must kill this creature (25). He
stands and watches as the beast drinks from the supply of his civil world while
he examines every movement in slow motion detail and debates the correct
idea to stand upon.
To be a man, he must be prepared to kill this threat, but he does not feel the
need. The snake is clearly a son of nature, an equal, a “someone” who simply
arrived at the trough first and perhaps even lives as a superior even to man. If
not superior, then clearly an early arrival to whom the speaker is content to
wait behind like “a second comer”(15). The voices of men point out his fear and
make this a flaw which they contend server to stop him in his duty.
The speaker admits his fear (37) but it is secondary in station
to the honor he instinctually feels. The speaker wrestles with
these conflicting thoughts while the snake continues its
mission with an air nobility. The snake does not move
quickly, like prey in danger, but rather “slowly, very slowly, as
if thrice adream”(47) almost without equal or enemy.

26. All around, the heat of the day drips with oppression while the center of the
earth smokes. The speaker is dwarfed by the ostentatious set on which he is a
player. It is not until the snake turns away that he is shaken from his dream
(54). Out of fear or perhaps out of shame, he takes up the mantle of
mankind and makes a last effort to fulfill his charge. The prince of the world
quickly escapes uninjured while the speaker is left only with his regret.
The employment of imagery in this piece is strong with the use of the brutal
heat and slow motion movement to create a sense of solitude and stillness.
The speaker paints the liquid posture of the snake with strong use of “S”
words which seem almost to turn the readers tongue into the very reptile
itself. The speaker is on his own and must choose between honoring the
snake in the way that his soul directs and walking in the shoes of
contemporary man voices of the men of his past, he sees these words only as
While he hears the
the thoughts of a demagogue and prefers instead to embrace the actuality of
his own feelings. It is only at the end that he gives in to his weakness and
puts forth a half hearted attempt which fails miserably. This collapse only
helps to illuminate the speaker’s true choice and he instantly knows that he
has sinned against himself and against nature.
In the end,

27. SNAKE BY D.H.LAWERENCE
POETRY IS A MEANS OF EXPRESSING A PERSON’S THOUGHTS,
FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES. EVERY POEM IS A RESULT OF A POET BEING
INSPIRED. SIMILARLY, D.H.LAWERENCE WROTE ‘SNAKE’ AFTER
BEING INSPIRED BY HIS ENCOUNTER WITH THE SNAKE AT HIS WATER
TROUGH IN 1920-21 WHEN HE LIVED IN A TOWN IN SICILY INSIGHT OF
MT.ETNA. HE USES THE TRUE VERSE AND SENSES TO CREATE A VIVD
PICTURE OF HIS EXPERIENCE.
LAWERENCE’S TITLE IS A COMMON NOUN, WHICH FORMS THE
INSPIRATION AND MAIN SUBJECT OF THE POEM., BEING DIRECTLY RELATED
TO THE POEM AND CONTENT, IS EASY FOR THE READER TO COMPREHEND
THE POEM.
THE POEM THOUGH DESCRIPTIVE IS REFLECTIVE BECAUSE AT THE END OF
THE POEM, THE POET’S THOUGHTS ON HIS BEHAIVOUR AND
PETINESS ARE DWELT UPON. IT STATES THE IDEA BEING CONVEYED
EFFECTUALLY. LAWERENCE CAREFULLY STRUCTURES THE POEM. IT
CONSISTS OF STANZAS WITH DIFFERENT LENGTHS. LONG LINES AE
WRITING IN FREE VERSE, LAWERENCE PAINTS THE SETTING ON A HOT
INTERSPURSED WITH SHORT LINES. HE ALSO MAKES USE OF ISOLATED
JULY DAY. FOR THE HEAT, HE HAD TO BE DRESSED IN PYJAMAS AND VISIT
WORDS LIKE ‘SILENTLY’ TO DRAW READERS ATTENTION TO
HIS WATER TROUGH TO QUENCH ITS THIRST. THE USAGE OF REPITION
THE POETS ATTITUDE.
IN LINE 2 ‘HOT, HOT’ DWELLS ON THE HEATNESS OF A
JULY DAY.

28. AS LAWERENCE DEPARTED TOWARDS THE TROUGH WITH HIS PITCHER,
HE HAD TO WAIT IN THE QUEUE, FOR THERE WAS SOMEONE BEFORE
HIM.TONE OF DISMAY IS EVIDENT AT THIS MOMENT.LAWERENCE MAKES
USE OF DESCRIPTIVE WORDS TO PORTRAY THE SNAKES MOVEMENT. THE
POET STOOD AWESTRICKEN AND ADMIRED THE MAJESTIC BEAUTY OF
THE SNAKE AS IT REACHED DOWN FROM THE FISSURE IN THE
EARTHWALL, TRAILED ITS YELLOW-BROWN SLACKNESS SODT BELLIED
DOWN, SLOWLY OVER THE EDGE PF THE WATER TROUGH AND
PROCEEDEDTO DRINK FROM THE ‘SMALL CLAERNESS’.THIS
DESCRIPTION EMPHASIZES THE SOFT MOVEMENT OF SNAKE.
THE USAGE OF SIMILIE EXPRESSES THE HUMAN EGO.
‘AND I LIE A SECOND COMER, WAITING’
THIS EXPRESSES HIS PERSONALITY OF SELF-IMAGE OF BEING WAITED IN A
QUEUE AS IF HE IS A SECOND COMER FOR THE FIRST TIME.
LAWERENCE HAS MADE USE OF MANY HYPHENTED WORDS SUCH AS
‘TWO-FORKEDГUSING VIVID IMAGERY IN THE FIFTH STANZA, THE
POET CONTRAST THE SNAKEГўв‚STYLE OF DRINKING WITH CATTLES.
THE SNAKES ALSO LOOK AT HIM VAGUELY LIKE THE CATTLES AND
CONTINUE TO DRINK. MT.ETNA WAS ACTIVE WHEN LAWERENCE WROTE
SNAKE THROUGHOUT WHICH HE ANTHROPOMORPHIZES THE EARTH AS
AN UNDERWORLD BRINGER OF DEATH AND LIFE, USING IMGERY THAT
UNITES SCATOLOGY AND EATING

29. YOU WERE A NOT AFAID, YOU WOULD KILL HIM!’
THERE IS THE USAGE OF EXCLAMATION MARK TO HIGHLIGHT THE
EMOTION AND AS WELL THE REFLECTION.HAVING QUENCHED ITS THIRST,
THE SNAKE ADVANCED TO WITHDRAW INTO THE HOLE. THE SIGHT OF THE
DIMINISHING SNAKE FILLED THE POET WITH A ‘SORT OF
DISMAY’ AND ‘PROTEST’. THE SNAKE DRANK TO HIS
FILL AND LIFTED HIS HEAD LIKE A DRUNKARD, AND ‘FLICKERED HS
TONGUE LIKE A FORKED NIGHT ON THE AIR, SO BLACK’, THIS
REMINDES US OF THE MT.ETNA.
THE ACCURSED VOICE OF EDUCATION URGED HIM TO PICK UP A LOG AND
THROW AT THE SNAKE, NOW ITS BACK WAS TURNED. THE POET USES
PERONIFICATION ‘CLUMSY LOG’ WHICH PERSONIFIES A
BORKEN PIECE OF WOOD TO HIT HIM WITH. THOUGH THE LOG DID NOT
HIT THE SNAKE BUT ‘CONVULSED IN DIGNIFIED HASTE’,
‘WRITHED LIKE LIGHTINING’ AND ‘VANISHED’
FROM VIEW. THIS REMINDED LAWRENCE THE PETTY ACT OF THE ANCINET
MARNINER WHO HAD KILLED THE HARMLESS ALBATROS.HE FELT THE NEED
OF AMMENCE FOR HIS ACT OF BETRAYEL AND CURSED THE VOICES OF
EDUCATION THAT HAS PROVOKED HIM TO EXECUTE ‘MEAN, VULGAR
THE EXTENDED SIMILE ‘LIKE A KING IN EXILE’ SHOWS AN
AND PETTY ACT’. HE ACTS POSSESSIVE BY SAYING BE CROWNED
EXAMPLE HOW HE WAS BANISHED BUT NOW DUELY TO ‘MY
SNAKE’ TO SHOW GUILT. IN LAWRENCE’S HEART THAT HAS
AGAIN.THIS SHOWS US RESPECT
ARISEN. A METAPHOR IS ALSO USED IN THE END ‘LIFE OF
LORDS’ SNAKE IS CONSIDERED TO BE LORD OF LIFE AS IT CAN BITE

30. THE THEME OF THE POEM IS ANIMAL LIFE IN NATURE. THE POEM IS AN
EXTRACT FROM HIS COLLECTON ENTITLED BIRDS,BEASTS AND FLOWERS.
THE MOOD OF THE POEM IS THE STATE OF MIND OR FEELING CONVEYED
IN THE POEM. THE POEM BEGINS WITH AWE ON SEEING THE SNAKE. IT
THEN TRANSISTS TO JEALOUSY SINCE THE SNAKE WAS DRINKING AND NOT
SHOWING ANY SIGN OF RESPECT. THE POET CONTINUES HIS ROLLER
COASTER RIDE OF EMOTIONS. HE BEHAVES BADLY AND FRIGHTENS THE
SNAKE. AS A RESUT HE IS ASHMED AND NOSTALIGIC ABOUT HIS ACTIONS.
THROUGHOUT THE POEM THE POET VOICES HIS FEELINGS, HIS OPINIONS
AND HIS EMOTIONS ABOUT HIS SUBJECT ‘SNAKE’. IT
REFLECTS HIS INSTIGUE, HIS SUPERSTITION, HIS SUPIDITY AND EVENTUALY
HIS REPENTANCE. HE DOES STRESS HIS POINT OF VIEWTHAT EDUCATION
CAN LEAD TO SUPERSTITIONS AND BAUBARIC BEHAIVOUR.
THE POEM IS WRITTEN IN FREE VERSE TO OFFER FELXIBILITIY. THE POEM
DOES HAVE EXAMPLES OF RHYMING COUPLETS AND IREGULAR RHYMING.
THE POEM TENDS TO FOLLOW CLOSELY THE SPEECH RHYTHMS OF THE
LANGUAGE AND LAWRENCE USES THE LINE AS THE BASIC UNIT OF
RHYTHM. THE SPACE ON THE PAGE INDICATES PAUSES IN THE MOVEMENT
OF THE POEM. EACH LINE EXPRESSES A SINGLE FEELING OR OBSERVATION.
IT IS THE DIRECT UTTERANCE FROM THE INSTANT WHOLE MAN.

31. D.H. Lawrence & Family.

33. SAMUEL TAYLOR
Born COLLERIDGE Devon,
21 October 1772
Ottery St. Mary,
England
Died 25 July 1834 (aged 61)
Highgate, England
Occupation Poet, critic, philosopher
Literary movement Romanticism
Notable work(s) The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner,Kubla Khan
Spouse(s) Sarah Fricker
Children Sara Coleridge, Berkeley
Coleridge,Derwent
Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge

34. THE RIME OF ANCIENT
MARINER
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The
Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest
major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and was published in
1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Modern
editions use a later revised version printed in 1817 that
featured a gloss. Along with other poems in Lyrical
Ballads, it was a signal shift to modern poetry and the
beginning of British Romantic literature.
The Mariner up on the mast in
a storm. One of the wood-
engraved illustrations
byGustave Doré.

35. Plot summary
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner relates the experiences of a mariner who has
returned from a long sea voyage. The Mariner stops a man who is on the way to
a wedding ceremonyand begins to narrate a story. The Wedding-Guest's reaction
turns from bemusement to impatience and fear to fascination as the Mariner's
story progresses, as can be seen in the language style: for example, Coleridge uses
narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create either a sense
of danger, of the supernatural or of serenity, depending on the mood of each of the
different parts of the poem.
The Mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial
good fortune, the ship is driven south off course by a storm and eventually
reachesAntarctica. A bird called an albatross (symbolizing the Christian soul)
appears and leads them out of the Antarctic, but, even as the albatross is praised
by the ship's crew, the Mariner shoots the bird ("with my cross-bow / I shot the
albatross"). The crew is angry with the Mariner, believing the albatross brought the
south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their
minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears ("'Twas right,
said they, such birds to slay / that bring the fog and mist"). However, they made a
grave mistake in supporting this crime as it arouses the wrath of spirits who then
pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially
led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters, where it is
becalmed.

36. Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.
Here, however, the sailors change their minds again and blame the Mariner for the
torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the Mariner to wear the dead albatross
about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps
as a sign of regret ("Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks / Had I from old and young! /
Instead of the cross, the albatross / About my neck was hung"). Eventually, in an eerie
passage, the ship encounters a ghostly vessel. On board are Death (a skeleton) and
the "Night-mare Life-in-Death" (a deathly-pale woman), who are playing dice for the
souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and
Life-in-Death the life of the Mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a
clue as to the Mariner's fate; he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for
his killing of the albatross.

37. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the Mariner lives on, seeing for seven
days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions
remain upon their faces. Eventually, the Mariner's curse is temporarily lifted when he
sees sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things"
earlier in the poem ("Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs / upon the slimy sea"), he
suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("a spring of love gush'd from my
heart and I bless'd them unaware"); suddenly, as he manages to pray, the albatross
falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew, possessed
by good spirits, rise again and steer the ship back home, where it sinks in a whirlpool,
leaving only the Mariner behind. A hermit on the mainland had seen the approaching
ship and had come to meet it with a pilot and the pilot's boy in a boat. This hermit may
have been a priest who took a vow of isolation. When they pull him from the water,
they think he is dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot has a fit. The hermit
prays, and the Mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs,
thinking the Mariner is the devil, and says, "The Devil knows how to row." As penance
for shooting the albatross, the Mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth,
tell his story, and teach a lesson to those he meets:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
After relating the story, the Mariner leaves, and the Wedding Guest returns home, and
wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".

38. Background
The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–1775) of
the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was the astronomer
on Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On this second voyage Cook crossed
three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent
existed.[1] Critics have also opined that the poem may have been inspired by the voyage
of Thomas James into the Arctic. "Some critics think that Coleridge drew upon James's account of
hardship and lamentation in writing The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.[2]
According to William Wordsworth, the poem was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth and
Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset in the
spring of 1798.[3] The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, A Voyage
Round The World by Way of the Great South Sea (1726) by Captain George Shelvocke. In the
book, a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shoots a black albatross:
We all observed, that we had not the sight of one fish of any kind, since we were come to the
Southward of the streights of le Mair, nor one sea-bird, except a disconsolate black Albatross,
who accompanied us for several days ..., till Hattley, (my second Captain) observing, in one of
his melancholy fits, that this bird was always hovering near us, imagin'd, from his colour, that
it might be some ill omen. ... He, after some fruitless attempts, at length, shot the Albatross,
not doubting we should have a fair wind after it.
As they discussed Shelvocke's book, Wordsworth proffers the following developmental critique to
Coleridge, which importantly contains a reference to tutelary spirits: "Suppose you represent him
as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these
regions take upon them to avenge the crime."[3] By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem
had taken shape.
Bernard Martin argues in The Ancient Mariner and the Authentic Narrative that Coleridge was also
influenced by the life of Anglican clergyman John Newton, who had a near-death experience
aboard a slave ship.

39. SUMMARY
There is a Latin epigraph before the poem that is a quote by Thomas
Burnet from Archaeologiae philosophicae. It says that there are forces in
nature and that people should study them. There are also notes beside the
poem that summarize and explain the corresponding passages. There are
two versions of this poem, one written in 1798 and the other in 1817. In the
later edition, some passages are changed or left out. There are also fewer
older words.
An old sailor, or Ancient Mariner, stops three young men who are going to
a wedding. The sailor grabs one of the men and tries to speak, but the man
wants him to let go. However, the man, or Wedding Guest, is captivated by
the sailor's "glittering eye" and listens obediently like a child. The
Wedding Guest sits on a stone, and the sailor begins his tale, explaining
how his ship...
(read more)

40. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Here is what I wrote:
"Energy, energy, everywhere, nor any drop to eat."
Meant as a comment on our inability (we animals) to get nourishment directly
from sunlight, though it shines on us everywhere. The plants and other
photosynthesizers come to our rescue, as readers of this website understand.
Coleridge, who probably knew little, if anything, about photosynthesis and
energy, wrote the following famous lines:
"Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."
That's just a small excerpt from what is a pretty long story told in poetic verse. It
is a beautiful and fascinating poem, which is why I had to appologize to
Coleridge for daring to mess with his great work.
Click on the links below, or just keep scrolling to learn a little more about the
poem and Coleridge, and to read a few more excerpts from the poem.

41. Excerpts from The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner
THE RIME OF ANCIENT MARINER
He holds him with his glittering eye ---
The Wedding Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding Guest sat on a stone:
He cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

42. In the antarctic ocean they get
stuck in dangerous ice until an
albatross seems to come to their
rescue. Then the idiot mariner (a
little editorializing) shoots it with
a crossbow....
The ice was here, the ice was
there,
The ice was all around:
It cracked and growled, and
roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound!
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

43. The loud wind never reach the ship,
Yet now the ship moved on!
Beneath the lightning and the Moon
The dead men gave a groan.
They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose,
Nor spake, nor moved their eyes;
It had been strange, even in a dream,
To have seen those dead men rise.
The helmsman steered, the ship moved on;
Yet never never a breeze up-blew;
The mariners all 'gan work the ropes,
Where they were wont to do;
They raised their limbs like lifeless tools---
We were a ghastly crew.
The body of my brother's son
Stood by me, knee to knee:
The body and I pulled at one rope,
But he said nought to me.

44. Things got really bad....
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with
legs Four times fifty living men,
(And I heard nor sigh nor groan)
Upon the slimy sea.
With heavy thump, a lifeless lump,
They dropped down one by one.
The souls did from their bodies fly,
They fled to bliss or woe!
And every soul, it passed me by,
Like the whizz of my crossbow!

45. Forthwith this frame of mine was
wrenched
With a woeful agony,
Which forced me to begin my tale;
And then it left me free.
Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns:
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.
I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach.

46. family of Samuel Taylor Coleridge