Tradition, Thou Art for Suckling Children

Tradition, Thou Art for Suckling Children - meaning Summary

Tradition as Infant Nourishment

Crane’s short poem contrasts tradition as simple, nourishing comfort for infants with the insufficiency of that same tradition for mature beings. It asserts that tradition offers only “milk,” not the substantive “meat” adults need, then delivers a rueful turn: despite this, humanity remains infantilized. The poem registers disappointment and irony about cultural dependence and arrested development in a few spare lines.