The poem, "To the Infant Martyrs," by Richard Crashaw holds a biblical allusion. The Roman King, Herod the Great, ordered the murder of male infants to prevent the birth and development of Jesus. Herod feared the political threat of the newborn Jesus, who is seen as the King of the Jews. Crashaw's poem describes how babies are killed for a religious reason during Herod's ruling. In the first line of the poem, the death of babies is already understood, "...your new-built cages break." The cribs are destroyed and stand as a symbol for the destruction of babies. The second line mentions heaven and comforts the reader by explaining that the infants are in a better place, a place where they will learn to sing before they even begin to speak. The
