The Snake

Emily Dickinson

Stanza I

A narrow fellow in the grassOccasionally rides;You may have met him,--did you not,His notice sudden is.

Stanza I

• Not usual association with evil – “narrow fellow”

• Metaphor – “a narrow fellow”

• Human characteristics

• Personification – Movements as human

• “fellow”• “rides”

– Not slithers or crawls

Stanza I

• Rhetorical question– “did you not”– Reader lulled into sense of communion with nature– Encouraged to feel close

• Conveys the beauty of the snake – “rides”– “Alliteration of “s” sound

• Fluid movement

Stanza II

The grass divides as with a combA spotted shaft is seen;And then it closes at your feetAnd opens further on.

Stanza II

• Tone – Mysterious • “grass divides”• “closes at your feet”• “And opens further on”

Stanza II

• Personification – “combs”– Human characteristics

• Diction – “spotted shaft”– Beauty of the snake

Stanza III

He likes a boggy acre, A floor too cool for corn.Yet when a child, and barefoot, I more than once, at morn.

Stanza III

• Human characteristics – “floor” not ground – Looking for refuge

• Narrator – “child”– “barefoot”• Closeness with nature?• Interruption of human?

Stanza IV

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lashUnbraiding in the sun,--When, stooping to secure it, It wrinkled, and was gone.

Stanza IV

• Shift– Was observing/ fascinated with snake now wants

to capture it. – “stooping to secure it”

• “whip-lash”– Instills fear in snake – “It wrinkled, and was gone”

Stanza V

Several of nature’s peopleI know, and they know me;I feel for them a transport Of cordiality;

Stanza V

• Diction – “Transport” (carried away with emotion)– “Cordiality” (gracious)

Stanza VI

But never met this fellow, Attended or alone, Without a tighter breathing , And zero at the bone.

Stanza VI

• Shift • “But”• Tone – Fear• Issue arises when humans try to assert power • Snake “rides” at its will• “tighter breathing/ And zero in the bone”

Themes

• Respect of Nature • Duality of Nature • Elusiveness of the snake• Oneness with nature but can lead to

alienation from nature