{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/snake-and-its-young",
 "title": "Snake and Its Young",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 51,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There is a peculiar snake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You might almost call it squatter,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It loves to dive in pond or lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At home on either land or water.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But it excited my good dog",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see small snakes bask in the sun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Enjoying themselves on a big log,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near into where the water run.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But their mother she was watching",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her numerous brood on the log,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She thought to them was danger hatching,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When she beheld myself and dog.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For she gave a hissing sound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All her offspring to awake,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She ope’d her mouth and at a bound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down her throat did rush each snake.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I scarcely my own eyes could trust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see those small snakes disappear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I really thought that she would burst,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the sake of her offspring dear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But I soon hid among the brakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To view the young ones leave their prison,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will you believe this tale of snakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I did count right just four dozen.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}