Complete poem: Human Nature - Is it human nature to desire forbidden fruit, to hunger for a blossom so obsessed with passion that we forget the pain, which inevitably arises once we tease ourselves with the thought of it or taste a tiny part of it, and it becomes the predator eating at us like a carnivore that saves the head for last, savouring the brain to feed its own, and we, still craving illicit nectar, enjoying the fact that it is devouring us? - C. J. Grant Question: 'Eating at us like a carnivore' refers to

1. being attacked by a wild beast
2. being attacked by a human enemy
3. being eaten up by an unknown entity
4. exerting a strong influence