The Cobra - Rayner Mendes

The Cobra

Rayner Mendes

Cobra! Cobra! Slither slow

Through thy jungle the wind blow

What creature by and by

Could see through thy patient eyes?

Look further than what you see

Is this all you can be?

With which hands dare he climb higher?

To reach thy divine fire?

What the grass? What the snow?

In what valley did wind blow?

What the fire? Dare to pass

Through our eternal grasp

Cobra! Cobra! Slither slow

Through the jungle the wind blow

What creature by and by

Could see through thy patient eyes?

This poem is written in trochaic tetrameter

The rhyme scheme is AABB