“Hunting Snake” by Judith Wright is a poem which talks about the ambiguous nature of a snake. Wright uses this idea to convey how powerful and intimidating nature can be. This includes the use of language features, structure of the poem and vocabulary.

Firstly, Wright uses a wide range of language features to emphasis the idea of powerful nature. One of features is personification. The snake “quested” through the grass, telling us that it is requesting to pass through the reader. The word “quested” shows that the snake is going on a spiritual mission, much like the pilgrims. This suggests a messenger of God, who is powerful and of great reputation. Another point is the snake’s “fierce intent”. The word “intent” highlights the idea the snake has a mind of its own and makes decisions itself. The personification suggest the power of the snake, even as an animal, the snake intimidates the author.

Wright also uses the structure of the poem to reinforce the idea. The use of consistent rhyme scheme which is destroyed at the last stanza when the rhyme scheme changes indicates a sudden shock when put in the perspective of the poet upon realising what a dangerous experience it was only after the meeting with the snake. The fact that it starts to rhyme towards the end shows that the poet is already starting to get her thoughts back in order, illustrating how little of an impact this snake had on the author’s life in the long run. The fact that she could maintain the rhyme scheme to that point also demonstrates that she was forcing herself to keep calm throughout the whole time and it was only after the incident that she allowed herself to panic a little. The caesura “we walked, and froze half-thought a pace.” found in the third line is to create a sudden stop in the reading pace of the reader to emphasize on how similarly the reader stop reading for a moment, the poet