Wires

The widest prairies have electric fences,
For though old cattle know they must not stray
Young steers are always scenting purer water
Not here but anywhere. Beyond the wires
Leads them to blunder up against the wires
Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter.
Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses.

Philip Larkin [1950 - The Less Deceived]


This was a poem I studied at school in 'O' Level English. It has stuck in my mind ever since. Every time I see these electric enclosures I think of our earnest English Mistress and the glories of Philip Larkin.