NCERT SOLUTIONS FOR CLASS 10 - ENGLISH NOTES - SNAKE - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - CBSE

 

SNAKE

MCQ

a) (iii) is as harmless as cattle

b) (iii) it was a really hot day when the snake came

c) (iv) he wants to kill it so that it doesn’t return.

d) (iii) moving slowly

e) (iv) is a majestic creature forced to go into exile by man

f) (iii) the act of the throwing a log of wood at the snake

 

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING

a) Why does the poet decide to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking? What does this tell you about the poet?

Ans: The poet decides to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking because he thinks that the snake came before him. The poet stands waiting with his pitcher ‘I came down with my pitcher’ and feels that there is some guest at the water trough. The poet feels himself honoured that someone has come to drink water from his trough. This shows that the poet is a lover of nature who sees the snake as a big creation of nature.

 

b) In stanzas 2 & 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?

Ans: The snake that came to the water-trough down from a fissure in the earth wall was yellow-brown slack, soft bellied. He sipped with his straight mouth, softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently.

 

c) How does the poet describe the day and the atmosphere when he saw the snake?

Ans: It was a hot day. The poet came out in pyjamas because of the heat, to fill his pitcher; it seemed to be a day of ‘Sicilian July’, with Etna smoking. The atmosphere was gloomy when the snake emerged from the fissure to drink water at the trough.

 

d) What does the poet want to convey by saying that the snake emerges from the ‘burning bowels of the earth’?

Ans: The poet wants to convey that the snake came out of the dark hell. He means that the snake comes out of the fissure from the bottom of the earth which is all dark and black as hell.

 

e) Do you think the snake was conscious of the poet’s presence? How do you know?

Ans: The snake was not conscious of the poet’s presence for it came very peacefully trailing his yellow-brown belly down over the edge of the stone water trough. It rested its throat upon the bottom where the water was dripping and sipped with his straight mouth softly into his slack long body.

 

f) How do we know that the snake’s thirst was satiated? Pick out the expressions that convey this.

Ans: The snake’s thirst was satiated for, after drinking silently he lifted his head ‘as cattle do’ satisfied and flickered his forked tongue from his lips ‘as one who has drunken’ and slowly proceeded to draw his slow length curving round and climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

 

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

Ans: On seeing the snake the poet has conflicting emotions. There is something that actually wants him to like the snake but at the same time his education preaches him to kill it as it might be dangerous to him. He also sees it as his guest and feels honored that a guest has come to drink water. Hence, he is covered with guilt after throwing the log on the poor innocent snake.

 

h) 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.

Ans: The snake moved slowly into the hole and suddenly the poet ‘picked up a log and threw it at the water trough to kill the snake’. The snake hearing the ‘clatter’ hastily moved ‘into the black hole’. The poet now regretted his action and blamed himself for acting the way he did. He wished the snake could come back for him to crown it like a king.

 

i) 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 form the poet that reflects these emotions.

Ans: The poet is full of admiration and respect for the snake. He respects it like a guest who has come to his water-trough to drink water. He ‘stands and waits’ to fill his pitcher and tells the snake to drink because it came before him. He considers him ‘like a god’ and wishes the snake would come back so that he could crown him ‘like a king’. He feels he had missed his ‘chance with one of the lords’, when the snake recedes back into its hole.

 

j) 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.

Ans: When the snake comes to the water-trough he ‘trails his yellow-brown soft-belly’ smoothly down silently. And when he has drunk the water he looked around like a god slowly proceeding to go into the fissure but when the poet picked up a ‘clumsy log’ and threw at the snake it ‘writhed like lightning and was gone into the black hole’.

 

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

Ans: After hitting the snake the poet has feelings of self-derision, guilt and regret. He blames the voices of education that lures him to hit the snake. He thinks how ‘paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!’ He despises himself and his inner voice curses human education.

 

l) 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?

Ans: The poet places the blame on the voice of education for his action to have tempted him into hitting the snake and hopes he need not pay for his negative action like the sailor that killed ‘the albatross’. The poet wishes the snake to come back for him to crown it like a king but believes it would never do so and sees it ‘like a king in exile’.

 

m) ‘I have something to expiate’-explain.

Ans: Although the poet hits the snake under the influence of his education he feels sorry and wishes the snake would come back so the poet could crown it like a king but he misses the chance. He thinks he has to make amends for this petty mistake.