Notes For All Chapters English Beehive Class 9
About the Poet
William Wrightson Ross (June 14, 1894-August 26, 1966) was born in Peterborough, Ontario. He studied geophysics at the University of Toronto. He served with the Canadian Expeditionary’ Force in World War I as a private in the signal corps.
Ross’s earliest works are written in free verse. Some of the works written by him are: Anthology of Canadian Verse, Experiment 1923-29 and Shapes and Sounds.
Central Idea of the Poem
In the poem ‘The Snake Trying’, the poet tries to say that all snakes are not poisonous. Some of them are quite harmless. It is foolish to kill a snake as soon as we see it. Even if a snake is poisonous, it will do us no harm if it doesn’t see any danger from us. A snake always bites in self protection only. Otherwise, it is as harmless as any other creature. But sadly human beings always try to kill a snake as soon as they see it.
Theme of the Poem
In the poem ‘The Snake Trying’ in the first stanza the poet describes how a snake is trying to get away from a man who is chasing him with a stick. The movement of snake is graceful and elegant. The way it curves in the water is quite remarkable to look at. The snake does not stick to one straight path to get out of the reach of the man, but wends its way in and out of that path as it is travelling along the water. In the second stanza the poet entreats the man with the stick to let the snake escape. It will hide into the reeds without hurting even children. It will hide into the green slim reeds.
Leave a Reply