Jul 12, 2021
Welcome to Season 4 of The Well Read Poem with poet and
classicist Thomas Banks. This series of poetry readings will focus
on poems having animals as the subject. Some poems will be by well
known poets, while others will be by less popular poets.
This week’s poem is “Infant Innocence” by A. E. Houseman. This poem
rather pokes fun at the more romantic treatment of animal
characters by poets like William Blake. Poem begins at timestamp
5:09. Check out our sister podcast, The Literary Life Podcast, for
more great discussions of literature!
By A. E. Houseman
The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;
He has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.