The Andante of Snakes

Read 'The Andante of Snakes' by 'Arthur Symons' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

The Andante of Snakes by Arthur Symons

 They weave a slow andante as in sleep, 
Scaled yellow, swampy black, plague-spotted white; 
With blue and lidless eyes at watch they keep 
A treachery of silence; infinite 

Ancestral angers brood in these dull eyes 
Where the long-lineaged venom of the snake 
Meditates evil; woven intricacies 
Of Oriental arabesque awake, 

Unfold, expand, contract, and raise and sway 
Swoln heart-shaped heads, flattened as by a heel, 
Erect to suck the sunlight from the day, 
And stealthily and gradually reveal 

Dim cabalistic signs of spots and rings 
Among their folds of faded tapestry; 
Then these fat, foul, unbreathing, moving things 
Droop back to stagnant immobility.

Form: Iambic Pentameter Comments

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