The Black Snake" by Mary Oliver E & G Band

June , 2015 E & G

Ten Sweet Short Silent Minutes of Writing  About Time #14

Which came first: the straight line or the curve?

0. When you think about "time" what picture do 
you see in your mind?

1. Is time straight, purposeful, and to the point, like an arrow?
2. Or is time cyclical? Like the wheels on the bus, going round and round, as the seasons do?
3. Is Music a way of making time have sound?
4. Is the musical scale like an arrow or is it a cycle?
5. Does thinking about time every make you thirsty, or hungry, or worried?
6. What time is it now? (Write out your answer in a full sentence, for example, "It is eleven o'clock.)
5. Now what time is it?
4. And now?
3. Does time stop when you write?
2. Does "now" last longer than time, when you write?
1. Is it easier to go back in time than it is to go forward?
0. What time will it be when you next look at the time?

AIM: Why did the poet choose to write about a late snake?  
Show 
https://www.blogger.com/video-thumbnail.g?contentId=22f45f08c4679132&zx=2vv6h79h5she

The Black Snake

When the black snake

flashed onto the morning road,

and the truck could not swerve—

death, that is how it happens.

Now he lies looped and useless

as an old bicycle tire.

I stop the car

and carry him into the bushes.

He is as cool and gleaming

as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet

as a dead brother.

I leave him under the leaves

and drive on, thinking

about death: its suddenness,

its terrible weight,

its certain coming. Yet under

reason burns a brighter fire, which the bones

have always preferred.

It is the story of endless good fortune.

It says to oblivion: not me!

It is the light at the center of every cell.

It is what sent the snake coiling and flowing forward

happily all spring through the green leaves before

it came to the road.

- Mary Oliver

Directions: 

1. Let each person in your group read the poem aloud to the group.

2. After each reading ask yourselves two essential questions 

 (a) “What is the poem getting me to think about?”

 (b) “What emotions does the poet feel as the poem moves from the beginning to the end?”

Now, since you have read and talked about the poem a few times, turn your attention to the following thirteen questions and do your best to agree with each other on your answers.

NOTE: Each group will have an opportunity to present their ideas to class for a grade.  

Grading: (a) To receive a grade, you must present. (b) To receive a grade, you must show you are listening to the group that is making its presentation.  (Noisy groups who don’t listen get a zero for class participation.  Groups that don’t present get goose eggs written in the grade book.)

1. How many lines in each stanza and how many stanzas are there in this poem?

2. Which stanza contains the word “oblivion”?

3. Which definition best defines the word “oblivion” as it is used in the poem?

(a) the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening:

(b) the state of being forgotten

(c) extinction

(d) all three meanings are found in the poem

4. Using evidence from the poem, explain your answer to number 3.

5. Which words and phrases does the poet use to communicate the world of nature?

6. Which words and phrases does the poet use to communicate the man-made world?

7. Which images does the poet use to indicate the conflict between the man-made world and nature?

8. What does the snake symbolize in the poem?

9. What does the road symbolize in the poem?

10. What does the poet think after she gets back into the car and drives on the road?
11. When you think about how time moves through life, is it more like a snake (in coils and cycles) or more like an arrow?  What does the poem suggest?  Use evidence.

12.  Give a brief summary of the story of the poem.

13.  Why does the snake cross the road?

May 19, 2015
E & G
Percy and Perseus are of course heroes.
AIM: Why is the Black Snake in the poem heroic?
Ten Minutes of Silent Sweet Writing

The second greatest and most terrible monster anyone can do battle with is boredom.  But, the worst and most terrible monster is the idea of being forgotten becoming a fact.  
Gosh!  After all the efforts and suffering we go  through in life, shouldn't we be at least remembered for something?  So the soul won't disappear into nothing? Is that fair? What can we do???

1. What amazing thing would you like to do to make sure that the monster of being forgotten won't trap you in it's jaws pull you out of memory?  
2. What will you do so people in the future will be glad you lived, even if life is short, here on earth?  
3. What accomplishment will go next to your name?




1. How many times would it take [of not opening the store ontime] before you take your business elsewhere?

2. How many times would it take you before you fired the employee who lost you money because he or she was habitually late?

3. What happens to a business's reputation when the employees don't perform either at or above the standard that they are supposed to?