CBSE Class 10 English Assignment - Snake. Students are advised to refer to the attached assignments and practice them regularly. This will help them to identify their weak areas and will help them to score better in examination. Parents should download and give the assignments to their children for practice.

SNAKE

POEM AT A GLANCE

A snake came to the poet’s water trough.

The snake reached down from a crack in the earth-wall and came to the

water-trough.

He slipped with his straight gums into his slake long body.

The poet came down the steps with the pitcher.

The poet realized that he must wait as the snake had come to the watertrough

before him.

The snake lifted his head and looked at the poet as cattle do while drinking.

It was a very hot day of July and the snake had come from the ‘burning

bowels of the earth.

The voice of his worldly education told him the yellow-brown snake was

poisonous and must be killed.

The poet confessed that he liked the snake and thought him as his guest.

There is no doubt, that he feared the snake and couldn’t kill him.

Even so, the poet felt honoured that the snake had come to seek his

hospitality.

The snake quenched his thirst and proceeded to go away.

He put his head into the dreadful black hole in the wall.

A sort of horror or protest overcame the poet.

He didn’t like the snake deliberately going back into that black hole.

He picked up a log of wood and threw at the snake.

The poet immediately regretted at his ‘vulgar’ and ‘mean’ act.

He was fascinated by the presence of the snake who seemed to him like a

king.

He wanted to atone for his ‘pettiness’.

LITERARY DEVICES IN THE POEM

Similes

 He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do

 And flickered his tongue like forked night on the air

 Seemed to me again like a king.

Alliteration

 Strange-scented shade, slackness soft-belled down, sipped with his straight

mouth, burning bowels

 And depart peaceful, pacified

 The dark door of the secret earth.

 To lick his lips

 Broken bank of my wall-face

 He put his head into that dreadful hole

 Put down my pitcher

 Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, silently

Repetition

 On a hot, hot day

 I was afraid, I was most afraid

 And slowly, very slowly

 Like a king, like a king in exile

Onomatopoeia

 He sipped with his straight mouth

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS (2 Marks)

To be answered in not more than 30 words:

1. Where did the snake go and why?

Ans. The snake went to the poet’s water-trough to drink water.

2. How did the snake quench his thirst?

Ans. The snake rested his throat upon the stone bottom and sipped water with

his straight mouth. He quenched his thirst by drinking through his straight

gums into his slack long body.

3. What did the voice of education tell the poet?

Ans. The voice of education directed the poet to kill the snake. The poet knew

that the golden snakes were venomous and so they must be killed. And this

snake was of golden colour.

4. What was the instinctive approach of the poet towards the snake?

Ans. Instinctively, the poet liked the snake and treated him like a guest. He felt

honoured that snake had come to drink water from his water-trough.

5. Why does the poet make reference to the albatross?

Ans. The mariner had killed the albatross without any reason. The poet also tried

to kill the snake without any reason. He thinks that his act is similar to that of

the mariner. So he makes reference to the albatross.

6. What did the poet wish?

Ans. The poet wished that the snake would come back again.

7. How did the poet feel at the end of the poem?

Ans. The poet felt guilt-ridden and repentant. He regretted the meanness of his

action of throwing a log at the snake.

VALUE BASED QUESTION (4 Marks)

(To be answered not more than 100 words)

1. ‘Why does the poet curse the voices of the education and civilization

that urge him to kill the snake?

Discuss the statement with reference to the following lines:

‘I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!

I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

And I thought of the albatross.”

Ans. The poet describes his encounter with the snake who had come to quench

his thirst. He came out from the crack and twisted over the edge of the stonetrough.

It was a hot afternoon. The snake visited the water-trough to quench

his thirst. The poet had also gone to the trough to fill water in a pitcher. The

snake rested his throat upon the stone bottom and sipped the water into his

slack long body. After drinking water, he raised his head and the bent down

to drink some more water.

The voices of education inside the poet reminded him that it was the fear of

the snake that made him refrain from killing him. The poet was quite afraid of

the snake, but he felt honoured that a snake had come to seek his hospitality

from the deep recesses of the earth.

The snake drank water to his satisfaction and slowly proceeded to the curve.

As he put his head into the hole. The poet was filled with a protest against the

idea of the snake withdrawing into his hole. The poet picked up a log and

threw it at the snake. The snake twisted violently and hurriedly vanished into

the hole.

The poet regretted his action and cursed the voices of education that had

urged him to kill the snake. For a moment he felt like th ancient mariner who

had killed the albatross for no reason. He wished that the snake would come

back. He felt that had to atone for the meanness of his action of throwing a log

at the snake.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION (3 Marks)

(Reference to Context)

Read the extracts given below and answer the following question by

choosing the most appropriate answer:

(1)

“A snake came to my water-trough

On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,

To drink there.

In the deep, strange-scanted shade of the great dark carob tree

I came down the steps with my pitcher

And must wait, must stand and wait,

For there he was at the trough before me.”

(i) The poet went to his water-trough to

(a) Drink water

(b) See the snake

(c) Escape the heat of the day

(d) Fill his pitcher with water

(ii) The snake visited the water-trough on a hot day to

(a) Rest under a tree near the water-trough

(b) Hide himself behind the trough

(c) Drink water at the water-trough

(d) Escape the presence of the poet.

(iii) What figure of speech does the poet use in the sixth line?

(a) Simile

(b) Image

(c) Repetition

(d) Alliteration

ANSWER: (i) (d) (ii) (c) (iii) (c)

He sipped with his straight mouth

Softly drank through his straight

Gums, into his slack long body

Silently,

Someone was before me at any water trough,

And I, like a second corner, waiting.

(i) The snake drank the water

(a) Gently

(b) Silently

(c) Softly

(d) Hurriedly

(ii) The literary device used by the poet in the first line is

(a) Simile

(b) Alliteration

(c) Metaphor

(d) Onomatopoeia

(iii) ‘Someone’ in the fifth line refers to the

(a) Snake

(b) Poet

(c) Trough

(d) Tree

ANSWER: (i) (c) (ii) (b) (iii) (a)

(3)

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do

And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do

And flickered his two-forked tongue

From his lips, and mused a moment

And stooped and drank a little more

(i) What literary device does the poet use in the first line?

(a) Alliteration

(b) Simile

(c) Image

(d) Metaphor

(ii) The snake looked at the poet

(a) Silently

(b) Stealthily

(c) Vaguely

(d) Carefully

(iii) Before drinking a little more water, the snake

(a) Mused

(b) Stooped

(c) Mused and stooped

(d) Hissed forward

ANSWER: (i) (b) (ii) (c) (iii) (c)

EXTRACT BASED COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS (3 Marks)

The voice of my education said to me

He must be killed

For in Sicily the black, black snakes are

Innocent, the gold are venomous

And voice in me said, if you were a man

You would take a stick and break him now

And finish him off.

(i) What told poet to kill the snake?

(ii) In Sicily, what colour are venomous snakes?

(iii) What literary device does the poet use in the third line?

ANSWER

(i) It was his education that told the poet to kill the snake.

(ii) In Sicily, venomous snake are of golden colour.

(iii) It is repetition.

(2)

But I must confess how I liked him

How glad I was he had come like a guest

In quiet, to drink at my water trough

And deport peaceful, pacified and thankless

Into the burning bowels of this earth?

(i) How did the poet treat the snake?

(ii) What figure of speech does the poet use in the third line?

(iii) What does ‘burning bowels of this earth’ mean?

ANSWER

(i) The poet treated the snake as a guest.

(ii) It is alliteration.

(iii) It means the bottom of the earth.

(3)

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid,

But even so, honoured still more

That he should seek my hospitality

From out the dark door of the secrete earth

(i) What is the figure of speech used in the first line?

(ii) Why did the poet feel honoured?

(iii) What does ‘the dark door of the secret earth’ mean?

ANSWER

(i) It is repetition

(ii) The poet felt honoured because the snake had come to seek his hospitality.

(iii) It means the bottom of the earth.

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