LateraLex

The meaning I have found in this song is not derived from what I think happened in Maynards life. I personally think it is a mistake to try to find meaning in a song by imagining what scenario Maynard might have gone through to write the lyrics. Rather, I take the words as they are, and in the song H. I don't neccesarily hear the connection to abuse.
Instead, I believe this is a song about sub-consiousness. We all have things in our past, some perhaps were emotional and painful to bear with. The means in which these problems are dealt with seem to be a good basis for H. I don't think I am going to go line for line, but I find the snake to be an analogy for the dark past. The snake has been repressed, but not forgotten. In this song Maynard is confronting these emotions, perhaps personified through a child, his son even.
I feel the major point of this song is to confront those memories, and emotions. Only then can the snake be drowned.