Why does the poet long to be that kind in the poem "Snake" by Theodore Roethke?why is the poet so impressed with the snake.

The idea that someone can meld with nature is something that comes up often in Roethke's poetry. What the persona (the speaker in the poem) seems most attracted to is the snake's "pure, sensuous form." The snake does not do any thinking--it just exists in its world. It glides out of the shade and hangs limply on a stone.

The young snake does not think; it exists. It is a "pure, sensuous form." Its entire way of being in the world is physical. It "glides" (an effortless movement) and it "hangs" on the stone it arrives at.

Humans live in mind and body. We are "civilized", and part of what makes us that is that we can control our bodies. We can think about our physical impulses and we can decide what to do, where to go, and even, perhaps, who to love. Most of us spend too much time thinking and not enough time being.

If we become one with an object in nature, we lose our intellect but gain a deeper pulse. This is the attraction for the poet. He watches the snake and feels an immediate physical response. He says his "slow blood warms." "Slow blood" is not aroused. It is calm and controlled. Warm blood is infused with passion. It can flow more quickly.

The snake represents sensuality in its pure form. The narrator wants to be one with the snake because he wants to connect with his own pure sensual nature. Unlike the snake, this does not come naturally for the poet. He has to hope that in time what is second nature for the snake will come to him.

What Roethke is doing here is reversing our expectations and playing with our ideas about what is honourable and good. We have built our society upon the belief that our ability to think is what makes us better than the rest of the beings on earth. Roethke is suggesting that it is the opposite that should be striven for--what is valuable is our ability to feel.