Essay for English American Literature Ph.D. class (2009 Second semester)

Q: Take two examples of poetry that we have studied during the semester.
　　For each piece, try to explain how the forms used relate to the communicative effect
　　that the poems chiefly have.

1.     Snake by D. H. Lawrence

(1)  Introduction

This is one of the unrhyming poems by D. H. Lawrence. I cannot find any evident
conventional and/or regular forms in it. However, Lawrence seems to utilize various
forms of non-semantic features and subject-matter for the purpose of communicative
effect.

(2)  Structure

First of all, I would like to divide this poem into four stages from a structural view point,
where the confrontation of Lawrence and the snake develops from hospitality to conflict,
and then to revulsion, and finally repentance, like “Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu” (起承転結) form
of Chinese poems.  

First stage: Stanza 1 to 5       Welcome to a snake as a guest
　　Second stage: Stanza 6 to 11    Confrontation with educational voice
　　Third stage: Stanza 12 to 15    Protest and attack to the leaving snake.
　　Fourth stage: Stanza 16 to 19   Repentance

 This kind of logical structure can be very effective as a method of persuasion. And I think
that this kind of structure also can be called “form”.

  (3)  Motifs

  Through all the stages, the nest of the snake recurs as a motif-image of the underworld:

   First stage: a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom (Stanza 3)
　　　　　　　　　 : the burning bowels of the earth (Stanza 5)
　　Second stage: the burning bowels of the earth (Stanza 8)
　　Third stage: that dreadful hole (Stanza 13)
　　             : that horrid black hole ( ditto )
　　　　　　　　　 : the blackness ( ditto )
　　　　　　　　　　: the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front
　 Fourth stage: the underworld

When we carefully observe the difference of the expression, we realize that they change
as the status of the snake to the poet changes.

In the first stage the snake is a guest from the underworld (the burning bowels of the earth),
when it drinks water peacefully. In the second stage the snake is still his guest from the
underworld who seeks his hospitality and makes him feel honoured, though the voice of his
education tells him to kill the dangerous snake. However, in the third stage when the snake
finishes drinking and turns its back to the poet, the snake turns into a venomous and detestable
reptile fleeing into the hole. He picks up a clumsy log and throws it at the snake. He forgets
or ignores that the snake was a guest from the underworld.

Then in the fourth stage he regrets his act as paltry, vulgar and mean, because the snake
“seemed to him again like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underground, now due to be
crowned again, that is, one of the lords of life”.

(4)  Forms and communicative effects used in each stage

The first stage (Stanza 1-5)

  　Here Lawrence treats a snake as his equal, who “came to my water-trough”, because
“it was a hot, hot day” and the snake must be as thirsty as he is. He thinks “(he) must wait,
must stand and wait, for there he (the snake) was at the trough before me.” In the stanza 4,
the poet even says “Someone was before me at my water-trough, and I, like a second
comer, waiting.”

   Then the poet watches the snake drinking water peacefully. He feels a sense of familiarity
with the snake much the same as cattle; “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”.

   Lawrence here uses the alliteration effectively to show a sense of stillness and smoothness.
     “In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree” (Stanza 2)
     “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.” (Stanza 3)

The second stage (Stanza 6-11)

     Then the poet confronts the voice of his education that the golden snakes are venomous
and must be killed. However, he is very glad that “the snake had come like a guest in quiet,
to drink at my water-trough” and “felt so honoured.” He is “truly afraid”, “but even so,
honoured still more that he should seek my hospitality from out the dark door of the secret
earth”

     Lawrence uses here repetitive short questions in the style of parallelism to show his strong
tension what to do about the snake.

      “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?” (Stanza 9)

  The Third stage (Stanza 12-15)

     Now that he drinks enough, the snake slowly begins to retire to his hole. Suddenly “a sort of
horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole” overcame the poet.
He picked up a clumsy log and threw it at the snake.      

     Here Lawrence uses the repeating of the words of “slowly” and “And … “ to emphasize
the slowness of the snake as well as the personification :

       “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 he turned his head,
       And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
        Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
        And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.” (Stanza 12)
       “And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
        And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulder, … (Stanza 13)

  The Fourth stage(Stanza 16-19)

   Immediately he regrets his act. He wishes that his snake would come back. He despises
himself and the voice of his education. He thinks that he missed his chance with one of the
lords of life.

   This stage is very compact with short verses and small stanzas. But the first line;
“And immediately I regretted it,” and the final lines “And I have something to expiate;
A pettiness” are quite sufficient to show us his strong sense of repentance and it is
very effective as a closing verse.

Jan. 24, 2010 　Shigekazu Yamamoto

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