What is the theme "Hunting Snake" by Judith Wright?

The major theme that is
addressed in this powerful poem is the conflict between man and nature, and the way that even
today, in our technological age, nature is, in some cases, still dangerous enough to represent a
real threat to mankind. This is shown through the snake that the walkers, the "we" in
the poem, come across. The snake is described in such a way as to highlight both its beauty but
also its killer instinct and the massive threat that it represents to humans:

The great black snake went reeling by.

Head-down,
tongue-flickering on the trail

he quested through the parting
grass;

sun glazed his curves of diamond scale

and we lost
breath to watch him pass.

Note the reference to the way
the "sun glazed his curves of diamond scale." So impressive is the snake in fact that
the narrator reports the group of walkers "lost breath" to see him, both through
wonder but also through fear because of the danger he represents. The snake is later described
as "Cold, dark, and splendid," and it seems clear from this that the emotions the
snake creates in the watchers are thus based both on admiration and danger. In fact, so fearful
are the human observers that after the snake vanishes they "took a deeper breath of
day" and carried on their walk. The theme of this poem is thus based on man's vulnerability
to nature and the way that creatures such as snakes represent danger that it is important to be
respectful and mindful of. The title, "Hunting Snake," highlights both the danger of
the snake as it was "questing through the grass," but also perhaps the need that
humans have to "hunt" out such experiences in order to remind them of the healthy
respect they need to have for nature and the natural order.