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.
Summary
This poem is about a snake. The snake was lying on the sand comfortably basking in the sun. But he was disturbed by some beings and was pursued with a stick in hand.
The poet describes in the poem how the snake tries to escape the stick by trying to run curving his thin long body. His shapes seem to be very beautiful. Then the snake enters the water and glides away trying to escape the stroke of the stick.
Then somebody advises to let the snake go away as this was a small green snake. This type of snake is not harmful even to the kids. In the meantime, the snake succeeds to run away and hide itself in the green reeds which are of the same colour. Like this the snake escapes.
Analysis
It is a poem about how a snake is made a victim of man’s cruelties. The poet describes the slithering and gliding movement beautifully and requests people not to hurt it.
In this poem, the poet wants to convey the ideas that all the snakes are not poisonous nor do they do any harm to human beings. They are friendly to the environment. So, it is nothing but foolishness to kill a snake as soon as we preview it.
It may be possible that some of them are poisonous yet they are not harmful at all unless they see any danger from us. A snake never bites without cause. It bites only in self protection otherwise it does not harm at all to any creature. But it is a matter of sadness that as soon as a man sees a snake, he always tries to kill it.