HUNTING SNAKE Judith Wright

L/O To learn how analyse the structure of a poem and be able to comment on the effect that it has on the reader.

S TARTER : L IST ALL OF THE WORDS, ASSOCIATIONS AND CONNOTATIONS WITH THE FOLLOWING 2 WORDS 1) Fear 1) Snake

H UNTING SNAKE... Who is being hunted? The snake? The snake’s prey? Us? What does the title suggest?

T HE STRUCTURE OF THE POEM Read the poem focusing on the structure. How is it laid out? How many lines? Rhyme scheme? Syllables per line? Any changes in structure? Sum up the structure in one sentence.

Sun-warmed in this late season’s grace under the autumn’s gentlest sky we walked, and froze half-through a pace. The great black snake went reeling by. Head-down, tongue-flickering on the trail he quested through the parting grass; sun glazed his curves of diamond scale and we lost breath to watch him pass. What track he followed, what small food fled living from his fierce intent, we scarcely thought; still as we stood our eyes went with him as he went. Cold, dark and splendid he was gone into the grass that hid his prey. We took a deeper breath of day, looked at each other, and went on. Stanza 1 – harmonious romanticised idealised nature. Stanza 2 – contrats with terror of the snake Stanza 3 – fear reaches its peak / the snake has the power to mesmerise and freeze us Stanza – contrast the feeling of awe with fear. ABABABABABABABBAABABABABABABABBA Powerful because of simplicity.

C OMMENTING ON THE STRUCTURE OF A POEM Identifying the structure of a poem is quite straightforward. It is merely identifing rhymes, counting lines, and is a relatively straightforward task. It will gain you little marks in the exam. It does however, give you a springboard on which you can write about the poem. The trick is to look at the structure, and see how it links with themes and ideas within the poem.

T HEME STATEMENTS : Come up with a range of simple statements about the themes within the poem. E.g. A central theme in the poem is The poem is about Another theme of the poem is

C OMMENTING ON STRUCTURE, LINKING TO THEMES AND THE EFFECT ON THE READER : The structure of the poem is very simple. It is tightly constructed, having 4 quatrains (4 line stanzas), each having lines of 8 syllables. The rhyme scheme is This emphasises the theme of Within the poem, because The effect on the reader is It also highlights This links to a further theme of Within the poem, and can be seen in the following quote The overall effect is

P LENARY : Encounters with nature. Think about a time when you had an encounter with nature. It could be when out camping, or going to sleep and looking at the stars, getting soaked in the rain, lying in the sun, watching a spider in a nest, taking a dog for a walk, watching a ladybird crawl across a leaf, looking for crabs in rockpools- anything to do with nature. Picture it in your mind- how did it make you feel?