Infant Innocence (652 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.33 on 12 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Andrewd (View user info) at 2005-05-10 10:04:04 EDT
Infant Innocence
A.E. Housman
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.
The poem, "Infant Innocence", by A E Houseman, is about life. It describes life in a very basic, simple, but indirect way. Houseman successfully makes a nice poem that is also very deep. The rhythm, rhyme, and subject are clear and clean. I will show the depth of this poem, and how it relates to us.
The first line, "The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;" describes life. "Huge", sometimes it can be very overwhelming. You may sometimes feel you carry the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. Life will seem unbearable at times. "Wild", this describes when we lose control. Whether it is a loved one dying or just plain going crazy. Sometimes we lose control. "Wild" can also describe that we have free reign to do what we want, and we have no restrictions. The ability to choose, heavy burdens, and loss of control, are all major parts of our lives.
The second line, "He has devoured the infant child." describes when our life's overwhelm us. The burden becomes too great for us to hold up and we fall, or become "devoured" by life. When we are "devoured" we are also helpless like an infant child. We become like infants that rely on our parents to nurture them and care for them.
We cannot help ourselves and depend on others to help us out, because life devoured us.
Sometimes when we are devoured we might not even know it. Drug abusers, child molesters, women beaters, alcoholics, will almost never admit that they are doing wrong and they are in trouble. "The infant child is not aware", is about how we sometimes are too prideful, or just plain stupid to realize we need help, but unlike the infant we are in most cases not innocent. People need to get over the great obstacle, take off their blindfolds, and see that they are troubled in order to be helped. Life will beat you down and you will be unconscious. Waking up is realizing you've got problems.
The repetition of talking about being eaten, details getting out of your troubles. In, "It has been eaten by the bear." Houseman uses lesser forms of devoured, and bear. We realize we are in trouble and our obstacles seem smaller, we've got more strength to overcome life and better ourselves. It is no longer a "huge and wild" grizzly bear, that eats infants in one bite, but a smaller problem that we can work around with the help we get from friends and family. Life seems overwhelming but we can always overcome it.Houseman wrote a very simple and deep poem. The bouncy rhythm also makes life seem enjoyable sometimes. Life is described so easily in "Infant Innocence". This is one of Houseman's greatest poems written and should be read by everyone.
This is shit!
User Reviews
Submitted by Fabit (user info) at 2005-07-28 11:02:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Andrewd (user info) at 2005-07-10 22:37:58 (#)
Ranking: 2
i gotta post the follow up presentation of this soon, fucking awesome, i got an A
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Posting school work and plus 2ing yourself. Your just one big bundle of Ego.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-07-10 23:52:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked this poem.
Submitted by MrSparkle847 (user info) at 2005-07-10 23:23:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I didn't graduate to have an English lesson!
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-07-10 23:01:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
You could also have added that it is written in the iambic pentameter.
Submitted by Andrewd (user info) at 2005-07-10 22:37:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i gotta post the follow up presentation of this soon, fucking awesome, i got an A
Submitted by Zombie_Reagan (user info) at 2005-05-10 15:25:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I feel duty bound to break this streak. My apologies.
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:41:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Preserve the streak!
Submitted by BillsSBChamps (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:31:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
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Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:16:43 (#)
Ranking: 0
NO HE'S TALKING ABOUT FUCKING A NIUGGER IN THE ASS STUPID!!!!!!!!!
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If you didn't pick up this simple fact you are a poetry dunce.
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:16:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
NO HE'S TALKING ABOUT FUCKING A NIUGGER IN THE ASS STUPID!!!!!!!!!
Submitted by knucklesnelson (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:15:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"the dingo stole my baby"
Submitted by Fabit (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:10:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
One post a day mate.
Wrong sight for discussing the inner workings of poetry, i love that stuff and even i wont do it here
god i rock
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-05-10 10:05:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Huh?