Emily Dickinson Stanza I A narrow fellow in the grass Occasionally rides You may have met himdid you not His notice sudden is Stanza I Not usual association with evil narrow fellow ID: 249253
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Slide1
The Snake
Emily DickinsonSlide2
Stanza I
A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him,--did you not,
His notice sudden is.Slide3
Stanza I
Not usual association with evil
“narrow fellow”
Metaphor
“a narrow fellow”
Human characteristics
Personification
Movements as human
“fellow”
“rides”
Not slithers or crawlsSlide4
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 Slide5
Stanza II
The grass divides as with a comb
A spotted
shaft
is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.Slide6
Stanza II
Tone
Mysterious
“grass divides”
“closes at your feet”
“And opens further on”Slide7
Stanza II
Personification
“combs”
Human characteristics
Diction
“spotted shaft”
Beauty of the snake Slide8
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. Slide9
Stanza III
Human characteristics
“floor” not ground
Looking for refuge
Narrator
“child”
“barefoot”
Closeness with nature?
Interruption of human?Slide10
Stanza IV
Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,--
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.Slide11
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”Slide12
Stanza V
Several
of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;Slide13
Stanza V
Diction
“Transport” (carried away with emotion)
“Cordiality”
(gracious) Slide14
Stanza VI
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing ,
And zero at the bone. Slide15
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”Slide16
Themes
Respect of Nature
Duality of Nature
Elusiveness of the snake
Oneness with nature but can lead to alienation from nature