Analysis of A Snake's Defense



By Chris Commodore©2023

There was a lass who chose me for a pet.
My space safeguarded with a wire net.
Each day, she’d free a luckless sorry mouse,
Then bid me stalk the beast about the house.

One morning I was out on such a hunt,
That wily critter on me pulled a stunt.
It scurried up the kitchen counter top.
As if my escapade its jump would stop.

I followed it waiting for time to pounce,
When suddenly, a profound shriek announced:
“O Lord, my God; a mouse is in my house!”
Next thing I know, out swearing comes Jill Crouse.

Before her mother noticed where I was,
She crossly chewed me out, she said because:
“You left your hiding place behind the wall;
And now you’re scaring mom here in the hall.”

“O stop chastising Jill, give me a break;
You left my suite wide open, for Pete’s sake.
If she can such a chilling alarm make,
Would she have died, if she had seen a snake?”

Most humans think a snake's a hellish fiend.
But you, poor child of Eve, think I am your friend.
Why not a dog or cat, unwary child?
Instead, you pick me from the forest far and wild.

If you’d take time to look, you’d surely see,
I never smile wherever I may be.
At other times, just listen and you’d hear,
I make no noise when I move far or near.

My venom and my fangs assure my food.
For safety and protection, it’s all good.
I’m not the killer world-wide you will find,
Who stockpile weapons just to kill my kind.

I never did to you a false claim make,
I always make it clear that I'm a snake.
Your choice it was to choose to cuddle me,
Ignoring thoughts of events that could be.

Around the world, back to the river Nile,
Most humans label serpents reptiles vile,
Their mindset made up from Eve’s Bible tale;
A rubber snake still renders humans pale.

Some serpents sport a noisy rattling tail,
So humans about snakes spread sleazy tales.
No matter whether live or whether fake,
Be careful child; don’t live by Eve’s mistake.

The colors that I sport are for your sake,
To help you avoid errors you may make.
Don’t pick me up, think I am sleek and cute,
And then to label me a vicious brute.


Scheme X AABB CCDD XXBB XXEE FFFF XXGG HHXX XXII FFHH JJKK KXFF FFLL
Poetic Form
Metre 1110 1101111101 111010101 1111010101 1111010101 1101111101 1101011101 1101010101 111101111 1101101111 1100001101 1111011011 1111110111 0101010111 111111101 1111010101 0111011001 1101011101 1111110111 1111010011 1111111101 1101010101 11111111111 1101110101 011111010101 1111111101 1101010111 1101110011 1111111111 1100110111 1100010111 1101011111 111011111 1101110111 111111101 1111111101 0101101111 0101110101 1101010101 111111101 0101110101 1101010101 1100111101 1101011101 1101111101 0101111111 1110110111 1111111101 0111010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 2,123
Words 457
Sentences 28
Stanzas 13
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 49
Letters per line (avg) 32
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 122
Words per stanza (avg) 31

About this poem

I was just thinking how most people recoil upon seeing a snake, let alone toughing one. This poem is based on an actual incident when a little boy bought a pet snake and hid it in the house unbeknownst to his mother. He failed to feed the snake one day and carelessly left the snake's box open. So, the poor animal saw and went on the hunt for a mouse.

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Submitted by ti.min on December 12, 2023

Modified by ti.min on January 10, 2024

2:17 min read
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