The Speaker

Throughout the poem, the speaker interweaves her memories with her present day observation of Cyrus holding a snake. This fluid narrative style casts the speaker as someone capable of handling complexity. As she first observes and then later praises her brother's encounter with the snake, she considers notions of kinship, ecology, and history. The speaker is not above examining her own troubled experiences related to nature—her memory of opening a chicken egg and killing the developing chick has forever marked her. However, the speaker ultimately expresses a belief that humans can engage in respectful relationships with other beings.

Cyrus

Cyrus (the speaker's brother) expresses his fascination with snakes by holding them. He defies the societal expectation for men to withhold certain emotions (namely loving care) and be concerned only with profit and consumption at the cost of others. The speaker praises her brother's capacity to encounter...