When midnight comes a host of dogs and men
Go out and track the badger to his den
“The Badger” begins when the men and dogs of the town go out to capture the badger. Rather than describing one particular hunt, the poem recounts a practice that happens frequently, and that follows a particular set of rules. Clare suggests this by employing the habitual present tense rather than the past tense—for example, writing “when midnight comes” rather than “midnight came.” The use of the habitual present makes the men seem less like individual persons making a choice than people following a script. In the logic of the poem, it is the arrival of midnight, rather than any human custom or decision, that leads the men to go out and attempt to track the badger. Clare thus characterizes badger-baiting as something natural and inevitable, part of the rhythm of traditional life like the setting of the sun.
He turns about to face the loud uproar
And drives the rebels to their very door.
The frequent stone is hurled where'er they go;
When badgers fight, then everyone's a foe.
The dogs are clapped and urged to join the fray;
The badger turns and drives them all away.
We’ve talked a lot in this guide about the themes of “The Badger,” especially its treatment of animal cruelty. However, we can also think about the poem in less ethically charged terms, and ask how Clare uses poetic style to make the fight exciting. Here, he rapidly alternates between the actions of the badger and those of his assailants. First, he describes what the badger does, “turning around” to face the crowd. Then he shifts focus to the men themselves, who hurry to the door and hurl stones back at the badger. The men call the dogs, and then the dogs themselves “join the fray,” finally leading the badger to again turn and drive them away. As readers, we are forced to quickly change who we focus on, such that our mental state mimics the chaos of battle. We can think about the poem like a quick-moving game of tennis: the actions of Clare’s characters follow one after the other like a ball being hit back and forth almost faster than we can see.
He drives away and beats them every one,
And then they loose them all and set them on.
He falls as dead and kicked by boys and men,
Then starts and grins and drives the crowd again;
Till kicked and torn and beaten out he lies
And leaves his hold and crackles, groans, and dies.
The ending of “The Badger” is the most moving moment in the poem. Throughout the poem, Clare characterizes the badger as possessing extraordinary bravery and ferocity. Even though he has been physically brutalized, he retains these traits until the very end. In the final lines, Clare suggests that the badger cannot exist without fighting. Earlier in the poem, Clare establishes symbolic meaning for the badger’s hold, with the word denoting not a physical lair or den, but rather the badger’s self, a self that is brave and vicious. When the badger finally leaves his hold, we imagine his soul leaving his body, but we also know that here he finally leaves behind his fundamental traits of bravery and ferocity, because in death, he gives up.
