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Introduction
The poem The Snake Trying is written by WWE Ross. In this poem, the poet describes an event in which a person happens to see a snake and tries to kill it with a stick. However the poet does not like this. The snake finally runs away and saves itself.
The poem has been divided into three stanzas and does not have any rhyme scheme. It is an open verse.
Poem
Stanza 1
The snake trying to escape the pursuing stick, with sudden curvings of thin long body. How beautiful and graceful are his shapes!
The poet says that a snake is trying to escape a pursuing stick i.e. a stick which is determined to kill him. The snake has a thin and long body with sharp curves on it. According to the poet the snake looks very beautiful and its shapes are very elegant and attractive.
So, in the first stanza, the poet describes an incident where a person is determined to kill the snake with a stick and chases it. The snake on the other hand is running away in order to save itself.
The poet does not see the snake as something dangerous. Instead he finds the snake beautiful and charming.
Stanza 2
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.
The snake glides (floats) through the water in order to escape the stroke of the stick.
The poet asks the person (who is chasing the snake) not to kill the snake and let is go so that it may run away into the bushes and save itself from being hurt.
The poet further adds that the snake is green in colour and thus harmless even to children.
Stanza 3
Along the sand he lay until observed and chased away, and now he vanishes in the ripples among the green slim reeds.
In the final stanza, the poet says that the snake which has run away from the stick stops on sand. However the person soon finds it. The snake again runs away to save its life.
It finally goes into the ridges of green and thin bushes and thus succeeds in saving its life.
Read important questions and answers of this poem.
