"Snake" by D.H. Lawrence

This is the poem that we read as "an unseen" in class the other day. It's a modernist poem full of symbolism and the central tension between the "voice of education" or civilisation and "earth-bound" feelings. It's a good choice to try out the various analytical skills you need to understand poetry.

The following acronym should help

Subject and theme(s)

Tone(s)

Rhythm (and rhyme in poems where appropriate)

Imagery

Diction

Evaluation

Form and Structure and other areas such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, enjambment, assonance, symbolism, etc. should also be noted for the meaning that it adds to this and other poems.

Remember that Lawrence thought that a poem's form was determined by the emotional patterns caused by the feelings of the narrator. The lingering, pauses and rhythm (pace) is essential for meaning. Of course, other literary texts, for instance,  Genesis, John Milton's "Paradise Lost"  and S.T. Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" are are also alluded to in