Question

Natural human instinct or conscience ultimately won over the ‘voices of education’. How? After the incident when the poet encountered the snake at his water-trough, he writes a letter to his friend. He describes the conflict he was subjected to while the snake was at the trough and also regrets his ‘mean’ and ‘vulgar’ act. Reproduce that letter here in about 80-100 words.

Answer 1

12, Hudson Road

London 

20th March, 20×× 

Dear Harry

Strange are the ways of God. On a hot day in July a snake came out of a crack in the earth-wall to my water-trough. Naturally, he had come there to quench his thirst. I also reached there with my pitcher. I decided to wait for my turn as the snake was the first to come there. He drank to his satisfaction. It was a yellowbrown snake and the voices of my education told me that the yellow-brown snake was poisonous and must be killed at once . No doubt, I was afraid of the snake but I felt honoured by his presence. He had come there to seek my hospitality. After he had drunk to his satisfaction, that snake withdrew his slack long body and prepared to go. He put his head into the black hole. This enraged me. I protested. I didn’t like the idea of the snake going back into the blackness. So in a fit of anger or you can call it the rush of the blood, I threw a log of wood at the snake.

O’ Lord! What had I done? I, regretted at once at my ‘vulgar’ and ‘mean’ act. I started despising myself. The snake appeared to be a ‘king in exile’ and had come there to seek my hospitality. Naturally, I had to expiate—and it was my pettiness.

Yours sincerely 

D. H. Lawrence