Badger (John Clare poem) Summary

“The Badger” depicts the practice of badger baiting, in which a badger is pulled from its lair and made to fight dogs until it dies. The poem begins with the men and dogs of the community capturing the badger and bringing him back to the village. The dogs bite at the badger’s heels, making him more and more enraged. Despite his small size, he fights off the dogs for hours, and even attacks the human crowd. Yet when he attempts to escape back to the woods, the crowd stops him in his tracks, and forces him to keep fighting with the dogs, until he is finally beaten and lies down, dead.