The poem describes a snake that comes to drink from the speaker's water trough on a hot day in Sicily. The speaker watches as the snake drinks and contemplates killing it due to beliefs about venomous snakes on the island. However, the speaker finds themself admiring the snake instead and allows it to drink and depart in peace. After the snake leaves, the speaker regrets startling it with a log and feels they missed an opportunity to interact with a majestic creature.

1. Snake
By
D.H.Lawrence
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2. Visualising the Poem
A snake came to
my water-
trough
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3. Visualising words/phrases
A water
-trough
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4. Visualising the Poem
On a hot, hot
day,
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5. Visualising the Poem
...and I in
pyjamas for
the heat,
To drink
there.
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6. Visualising the Poem
In the deep,
strange
scented shade
of the
great dark
carob-tree
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7. Visualising words/phrases
The Carob tree is
best known for its
edible seeds that are
used, among other
things, as a chocolate
substitute. It is a tree
that grows well in dry
climates, which would
explain its relative
abundance in
Southern Spain.
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8. Visualising the Poem
I came down
the steps with
my pitcher
And must
wait, must
stand and
wait,
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9. Visualising the Poem
...for there he
was at the
trough before
me.
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10. Visualising the Poem
He reached
down from a
fissure in the
earth-wall in
the gloom...
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11. Visualising words/phrases
Fissure in the earth wall
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12. Visualising the Poem
And trailed his
yellow-brown
slackness soft-
bellied down,
over the edge of
the stone trough
And rested his
throat upon the
stone bottom,
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13. Visualising the Poem
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.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

14. Visualising the Poem
Someone was
before me at
my water-
trough,
And I, like a
second comer,
waiting.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

15. Visualising the Poem
He lifted his
head from his
drinking, as
cattle do,
And looked at
me vaguely, as
drinking cattle
do,
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16. Visualising the Poem
And flickered
his two-forked
tongue from his
lips, and
mused a
moment,
And stooped
and drank a
little more,
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17. Visualising the Poem
Being earth-
brown, earth-
golden from
the burning
bowels of the
earth...
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18. Visualising words/phrases
Bowels—
deep, interior,
core
(refers to the
intestines as
well)
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19. Visualising the Poem
On the day of
Sicilian July,
with Etna
smoking.
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20. Visualising words/phrases
Sicily is a
region of Italy,
and is the
largest island
in the
Mediterranean
Sea.
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21. Visualising the Poem
The voice of
my education
said to me
He must be
killed,
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22. Visualising the Poem
For in Sicily
the black,
black snakes
are innocent,
the gold are
venomous.
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23. Visualising the Poem
And voices in me
said, If you were
a man
You would take a
stick and break
him now, and
finish him off.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

24. Visualising the Poem
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?
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

25. Was it cowardice, that I
dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that
I longed to talk to
him? Was it humility,
to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.
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26. And yet those
voices:
If you were not
afraid, you
would kill him!
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27. Visualising the Poem
And truly I was afraid, I
was most afraid, But
even so, honoured
still more
That he should seek
my hospitality
From out the dark
door of the secret
earth.
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28. Visualising the Poem
He drank enough
And lifted his head,
dreamily, as one who has
drunken,
And flickered his tongue
like a forked night on the
air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a
god, unseeing, into the
air,
And slowly turned his
head,
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29. Visualising the Poem
And slowly, very slowly,
as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw
his slow length
curving round
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30. Visualising the Poem
And climb again
the broken
bank of my
wall-face.
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31. Visualising the Poem
And as he put his
head into that
dreadful hole,
And as he slowly
drew up, snake-
easing his
shoulders, and
entered farther,
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32. Visualising the Poem
A sort of horror, a sort
of protest against his
withdrawing into that
horrid black hole,
Deliberately going
into the blackness,
and slowly drawing
himself after,
Overcame me now
his back was turned.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

33. Visualising the Poem
I looked round, I put
down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy
log
And threw it at the
water-trough with a
clatter.
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34. Visualising the Poem
I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of
him that was left behind
convulsed in undignified
haste.
Writhed like lightning, and
was gone
Into the black hole, the
earth-lipped fissure in the
wall-front,
At which, in the intense
still noon, I stared with
fascination.
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35. Visualising the Poem
And immediately I
regretted it.
I thought how paltry,
how vulgar, what a
mean act!
I despised myself and
the voices of my
accursed human
education.
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36. Visualising the Poem
And I thought of the
albatross
And I wished he
would come back,
my snake
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37. Visualising the Poem
For he seemed to me
again like a king,
Like a king in exile,
uncrowned in the
underworld,
Now due to be
crowned again.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com

38. Visualising the Poem
And so, I missed my
chance with one of
the lords
Of life.
And I have something
to expiate:
A pettiness.
rvikramadityasingh@rediffmail.com