The Snake
A snake came to my water-trough
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.
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.
Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second-comer, waiting.
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,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.
And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.
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?
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.
And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!
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.
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,
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.
And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
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.
I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.
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.
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.
And I thought of the albatross,
And I wished he would come back, my snake.
For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.
And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.
**************************************************
D.H. Lawrence was living and writing in Taormina in Sicily at the time he wrote this. I am assuming that he actually saw this scene. He references black snakes in Sicily as being non-venomous. I am assuming he's referring to the Western Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) or one of the other non-v snakes on the island. The problem with the biology of this poem is that there seems to be one venomous snake in Sicily, the Southern Italian Asp Viper (Vipera aspis hugyi), which is not a solid yellow brown color as described. It's possible that Lawrence was describing one of the common non-venomous snakes of the island, like the Grass Snake (N. natrix sicula) or even the legless lizard, the Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis). It is also quite possible that Lawrence was told this snake was venomous, even though it was not, or that he simply misidentified the snake as venomous.
The only venomous snake on the island, The Asp, is one of the True Vipers. True Vipers, family Viperidae, have folding curved fangs and (unlike the pit vipers) have no heat sensing pit. They give live birth, or rather retain the eggs in the body and release the young upon hatching.The Southern Italian Asp is dull brown or gray with darker brown blotches along the back. (Below)
The Slow worm is a legless lizard, and is completely harmless, despite some local beliefs throughout Europe to the contrary. It is identifiable as a lizard, because it has eye lids and ear openings, unlike snakes. (Below)
The Grass Snake is another non-venomous snake common throughout Europe. They are often found near water and are comfortable swimming and catching aquatic prey. Like many non-venomous snakes that live near water (especially the subfamily Natricinae), they give live birth, as well.(1st picture above)
Speculation on my part really, as I've not been to Sicily, nor are there any definitive texts in English on the snakes of the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment