The Crow and the Serpent — Nursery Rhyme Lyrics

A Crow, in great want of food, saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying down, greedily seized him. The Serpent, turning about, bit the Crow with a mortal wound. The Crow in the agony of death exclaimed: "O unhappy me! who have found in that which I deemed a most happy windfall the source of my certain destruction."
What seem to be blessings are not always so.

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Learning from "The Crow and the Serpent"

Nursery rhymes are some of the best teachers of rhythm and rhyme. "The Crow and the Serpent" uses 2 lines to create a memorable verse — proof that effective poetry doesn't need to be long. Pay attention to the meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is what makes the rhyme stick in your head.

Songwriters and poets can borrow these patterns. Try writing your own lyrics using the same rhyme scheme and line length as this nursery rhyme. You can also use words from the poem above as starting points — click any word to find rhymes or look up its definition, then build from there.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the words to The Crow and the Serpent?
The lyrics to The Crow and the Serpent are: A Crow, in great want of food, saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying down, greedily seized him. The Serpent, turning about, bit the Crow with a mortal wound. The Crow in the agony of death exclaimed: "O unhappy me! who have found in that which I deemed a most happy windfall the source of my certain destruction." / What seem to be blessings are not always so.
How many lines does The Crow and the Serpent have?
"The Crow and the Serpent" has 2 lines of verse.

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