Badger (John Clare poem) Essay Questions

How does John Clare characterize the badger? Cite specific examples.

Clare portrays the badger as the hero of the poem, but also emphasizes the creature’s crude brutality. The final lines of the poem commemorate his death, and stress that only great violence could overcome his natural courage and ferocity. However, Clare also describes the badger grinning and laughing, and even calls him a “blackguard.” In Clare’s version of events, the badger, far from an innocent victim, seems to delight in the violence of the fight.

What role does community play in “The Badger”?

In “The Badger,” the village’s human population almost always works as a group. At the beginning of the poem, the men go out with the dogs and capture the badger in accordance with tradition. Throughout the poem, they fight as one, and even when things get too intense, the women leave together, accompanied by their young sons. Only the poacher and the drunkard, both social outcasts, are depicted as individuals. Clare thus suggests that the badger hunt is a country tradition that relies on a cohesive community capable of acting as one.