Poetry About Snakes

Snake poetry slithers between the literal and metaphorical, exploring creatures that inspire both fascination and fear. These verses celebrate the actual serpent - its elegant movement, its patient hunting, its remarkable ability to shed skin and emerge renewed. But they also explore the snake as symbol: betrayal and wisdom, danger and healing, the forbidden knowledge of Eden and the medical caduceus.

From ancient mythology to backyard encounters, snakes represent transformation, the shedding of old selves, the wisdom that comes from seeing the world from ground level. Poetry about snakes reminds us that what we fear often holds lessons, and that renewal sometimes requires slipping out of skin that no longer fits.

Featured Poems

Garden Encounter

A backyard meeting with a garter snake teaches mindfulness.

I nearly stepped on it - a ribbon of green and gold sunning itself on the garden path, utterly still, utterly present.

We regarded each other, predator and human, each frozen in our own survival response: mine of irrational fear, its of patient assessment.

Then it flowed away, muscles rippling beneath scales, disappearing into tall grass like water soaking into earth.

I stood there heart racing, reminded that I share this garden with older lives than mine, and that fear and fascination are often the same thing.

- Patricia Stone

Shedding Season

Using the snake's molting as metaphor for personal transformation.

The snake's old skin lies abandoned in the terrarium, a perfect ghost of who it was yesterday, eyes and all - while the snake itself emerges glossy, new, colors vibrant.

I think about the selves I've shed over the years: the people-pleaser, the perfectionist, the one who believed she had to stay small to be loved.

Each version felt permanent while I wore it, but transformation is the most natural thing - growth requires outgrowing our old skins.

The snake doesn't mourn what it leaves behind. Perhaps I shouldn't either.

- David Nakamura

Snake-in-the-Grass

The serpent as symbol of hidden betrayal.

They called you friend, wrapped themselves around you like the python's embrace - warm, constant, patient.

Only later did you learn that constrictors don't squeeze all at once - they wait for each exhale, then tighten incrementally, until breathing becomes impossible.

The betrayal wasn't a single strike, but a slow suffocation, a gradual taking disguised as closeness.

Now you know: not everyone who wraps around you is trying to hold you up. Some are just waiting for you to let your guard down.

- Marcus Cole

Classic Voices

Snake

by D.H. Lawrence (1923)

Lawrence's meditation on encountering a snake at his water-trough, exploring the conflict between primal fear and admiration for the creature's noble bearing.

A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there.

And I thought of the albatross, And I wished he would come back, my snake. For he seemed to me again like a king, Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld, Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords Of life. And I have something to expiate: A pettiness.

The Garden

by Andrew Marvell (1681)

While not exclusively about snakes, this meditation on Eden references the serpent's role in humanity's fall from innocence.

Two Paradises 'twere in one To live in Paradise alone. What wondrous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine;

Micro Verses

The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

In the snake's stillness is not weakness, but perfect awareness.

- Nature wisdom

We fear the serpent but admire the dragon - both are the same creature viewed through different lenses.

- Eastern proverb

The snake moves forward by leaving behind what no longer serves. Learn from this.

- Ancient teaching

Deeper Explorations

Snakes & Transformation

The serpent as symbol of change, renewal, and rebirth.

Between Skins

There's a vulnerable period when the old skin loosens but hasn't yet fallen away - the snake is cloudy-eyed, irritable, retreating.

I recognize this: the awkward time between who I was and who I'm becoming, when both identities vie for space in the same body.

- Sofia Martinez

Ouroboros

The snake eating its tail: endless cycle, death feeding life, endings begetting beginnings, the eternal return of transformation.

- Chen Wei

Snakes & Wisdom

The serpent as ancient symbol of knowledge and healing.

Medical Symbol

The snake winds around the staff of medicine - poison and cure coming from the same source, knowledge that can kill or heal depending on the dose.

This is the serpent's wisdom: to know that danger and salvation are often the same thing approached differently.

- Dr. Rachel Kim

Poetry About