Red in Tooth and Claw

This episode's title comes from a saying, "nature, red in tooth and claw..." that was in common use from at least the 1830s to describe the savagery of nature and humanity. Its best-known use was probably in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1850 poem "In Memoriam A. H. H.": "Who trusted God was love indeed / And love Creation's final law- / Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw / With ravine, shriek'd against his creed- / Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, / Who battled for the True, the Just, / Be blown about the desert dust, / Or seal'd within the iron hills?" This same poem contains one of the most famous lines in nineteenth-century English poetry: "I hold it true, whate'er befall; / I feel it, when I sorrow most; / 'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all."