Why does the poet long to be that kind in the poem “Snake” by Theodore Roethke?
akannan Teacher Middle School eNotes Editor When analyzing why Roethke is impressed with the snake, I come back to his one line in the third stanza: “The pure and sensuous form.” A theme in Roethke’s poetry is the element of the natural world, how things are and, perhaps, how things were intended to be. I think Roethke admires the form of the snake and how attune and synchronized the snake is with its environment. The descriptions in the first stanza would indicate as much. The snake does not slither, it “glides” and it doesn’t come out of sinister darkness, but rather of “molted shade.” It does not seek to control or dominate its environment, as it “hangs, limp on a stone:/ A think mouth, and a tongue/ Stayed, in the still air.” The traditional depiction of snakes is of malevolence and deception. Yet, this rendering of the snake shows it as one that seems to be at peace with its world. It is a part of the world, an extension of it. Perhaps, this is why Roethke sees it as a “pure, sens
