CBSE solutions for English Communicative - Literature Reader Class 10 chapter 11 - Snake [Latest edition]

Snakes generate both horror and fascination. Do you agree? Why/Why not?

Read what W.W.E. Ross feels when he sees a snake and fill in the table given
below:

The snake trying to escape the
pursuing stick, with sudden curvings
of thin long body. How beautiful and
graceful are his shapes !
He glides through the water away
from the stroke. O let him go over the
water into the reeds to hide without
hurt. Small and green he is harmless
even to children Along the sand
he lay until observed
and chased away, and now
he vanishes in the ripples
among the green slim reeds.

Given below is the summary of the poem Snake in short paragraphs. However
they are jumbled. Work in pairs and put the summary into a logical sequence.

(a) After drinking water to satisfaction, the snake raised his head dreamily and flickered his forked tongue and licked his lips. The snake looked around like a God and then slowly proceeded to curve round and move away from the water trough.

(b) The poet felt much like the ancient mariner who had killed the albatross for no reason. He wishes that the snake would come back. He thinks of the snake as a king in exile who has to be crowned again. He also regrets having missed his opportunity of knowing and understanding one of the lords of life.

(c) As the snake put his head into the hole to retreat into the earth, the poet was filled with a protest against the idea of the snake withdrawing into his hole. The poet put down his pitcher, picked up a log and hurled it at the snake. The snake twisted violently and with great alacrity vanished into the hole in the wall.

(d) A snake visited the poet’s water trough on a hot afternoon to quench his thirst. The poet who had also gone to the trough to fill water in a pitcher waited for the snake since he had come at the trough prior to the poet.

(e) The voices of education inside the poet tell him that it was the fear for the snake that made him refrain from killing him. However, the poet feels that though he was quite afraid of the snake, he did actually feel honoured that a snake had come to seek his hospitality from the deep recesses of the earth.

(f) He is guilt-ridden. He feels that he has to atone for the meanness of his action of throwing a log at the snake.

(g) The snake rested his throat upon the stone bottom and sipped the water into his slack long body. After drinking water, he raised his head just like cattle do and flashed his forked tongue, thought for a moment and then bent down to drink some more water.
(h) Education and social conventions make the poet think that the golden brown poisonous snake must be killed and that as a brave man he must undertake the task of killing the snake.

(i) The poet instantly felt sorry for his unrefined and contemptible act and cursed the voices of education and civilization that had shaped his thought processes and urged him to kill the snake.

(j) However, the poet instinctively likes the snake, treats him like a guest and feels honoured that it had come to drink at his water trough. The poet questions himself and wonders whether his not daring to kill the snake proved that he was a coward and whether his desire to talk to the snake reflected his perversity.

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• 'he lifted his head from his drinking as cattle do' - The poet wants to convey that the snake

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• 'Sicilian July', 'Etna smoking' and 'burning bowels of the earth' are images that convey
  that

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• 'Asort of horror , a sort of protest overcame me' - The poet is filled with protest because

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• In the line 'And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther'
  the phrase snake easing' his shoulders means

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• He seemed to me like a king in exile…' The poet refers to the snake as such to emphasize that the snake

Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:

• 'I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act' -The poet is referring to

Answer the following question briefly:

Why does the poet decide to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking? What
does this tell you about the poet? (Notice that he uses 'someone' instead of 'something'
for the snake.)

Answer the following question briefly:

In stanza 2 and 3, the poet gives a vivid description of the snake by using suggestive expressions. What picture of the snake do you form on the basis of this description?

Answer the following question briefly:

How does the poet describe the day and the atmosphere when he had seen the snake?

Answer the following question briefly:

What does the poet want to convey by saying that the snake emerges from the 'burning
bowels of the earth'?

Answer the following question briefly:

Do you think the snake was conscious of the poet's presence? How do you know?

Answer the following question briefly:

How do we know that the snake's thirst had been satiated? Pick out the expressions that convey this.

Answer the following question briefly:

The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience conflicting emotions on seeing the snake?

Answer the following question briefly:

The poet is filled with horror and protest when the snake prepares to retreat and bury itself in the 'horrid black', 'dreadful' hole. In the light of this statement, bring out the irony of his act of throwing a log at the snake.

Answer the following question briefly:

The poet seems to be full of admiration and respect for the snake. He almost regards him like a majestic God. Pick out at least four expressions from the poem that reflect these emotions.

Answer the following question briefly:

What is the difference between the snake's movement at the beginning of the poem and later when the poet strikes it with a log of wood? You may use relevant vocabulary from the poem to highlight the difference.

Answer the following question briefly:

The poet experiences feelings of self-derision, guilt and regret after hitting the snake. Pick out expressions that suggest this. Why does he feel like this?

Answer the following question briefly:

You have already read Coleridge's poem The Ancient Mariner in which an albatross is killed by the mariner. Why does the poet make an allusion to the albatross?

Answer the following question briefly :

'I have something to expiate'-Explain.

Alliteration is the repetition of sounds in words, usually the first sound. Sibilance is a special form of alliteration using the softer consonants that create hissing sounds, or sibilant sounds. These consonants and digraphs include s, sh, th, ch, z, f, x, and soft c.

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it represents for a rhetorical or artistic effect of bringing out the full flavor of words. The sounds literally make the meaning in such words as “buzz,” “crash,” “whirr,” “clang” “hiss,” “purr,” “squeak,” etc.lt Is also used by poets to convey their subject to the reader. For example, In the last lines of Sir Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Come Down, O Maid’, m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring Insects:

… the moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Notice how D H Lawrence uses both these devices effectively in the following stanza.
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.

To what effect has the poet used these devices? How has it added to your understanding of the subject of the poem? You may record your understanding of snake characteristics under the following headings:
(a) Sound
(b) Movement
(c) Shape

The poet has also used both repetition and similes in the poem. For example-- 'must wait, must stand and wait' (repetition) and 'looked at me vaguely as cattle do' (simile).Pick out examples of both and make a list of them in your notebooks. Give reasons why the poet uses these literary devices.

A Calligram is a poem, phrase or word in which the handwriting is arranged in a way that creates a visual image. The image created by the words expresses visually what the word or words, say. In a poem, it manifests visually the theme presented by the text of the poem. Read the poem given below. Try to compose a calligram. You could pick a subject of your choice.

Snake
Snake glides
through grass
over
Pebbles
forked tongue
working
never
speaking
but its
body
whispers
listen.
Keith Bosley