Vintage Hughes - Snail Summary & Analysis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 53 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Vintage Hughes.
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Vintage Hughes - Snail Summary & Analysis

This Study Guide consists of approximately 53 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Vintage Hughes.
This section contains 140 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Vintage Hughes Study Guide

Snail Summary

The poet speaks of a snail that moves along in a dream, knowing only the weather and a rose. The snail drinks the dewdrop's mystery.

Snail Analysis

This poem is all about scale and perception. The snail is aware only of the weather and the rose he is on. He knows the largest scale reality and the smallest scale reality, though everything in between—the domain of human action—is unknown to him, so that he moves as if in a dream. But though his state appears dreamlike to the human poet, he speaks of the snail as drinking the dewdrop's Mystery, with a capital M. Therefore, though the snail sees less than the poet in one sense, he also sees much more. He drinks of Mystery and transcends his size and scale.

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This section contains 140 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the Vintage Hughes Study Guide
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Gale
Vintage Hughes from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.