Little Red Cap: Sexual Awakening and Coming of AGE

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Little Red Cap

filled with enticing books. She is filled with intense pleasure and
SUMMARY excitement upon seeing all these books, her response to
reading so many words described in terms resembling an
As the speaker leaves behind the metaphorical neighborhood
orgasm.
of her childhood, there are fewer and fewer houses around,
and the landscape eventually gives way to athletic fields, a local Time passes, however, and the speaker reflects on what ten
factory, and garden plots, tended to by married men with the years together with the wolf has taught her. She compares the
same submissive care they might show a mistress. The speaker oppressive nature of their relationship to a mushroom growing
passes an abandoned railroad track and the temporary home of from, and thus figuratively choking, the mouth of a dead body.
a recluse, before finally reaching the border between her She has learned that birds—implied to be representative of
neighborhood and the woods. This is where she first notices poetry or art in general—and the thoughts spoken aloud by
someone she calls "the wolf." trees (meaning, perhaps, that art comes only from experience).
And she has also realized that she has become disenchanted
He is easy to spot, standing in a clearing in the woods and
with the wolf, both sexually and artistically, since he and his art
proudly reading his own poetry out loud in a confident voice.
have grown old, repetitious, and uninspiring.
The speaker notes the wolf's literary expertise, masculinity, and
maturity—suggested by the book he holds in his large hands The speaker picks up an axe and attacks a willow tree and a fish,
and by his thick beard stained with red wine. She marvels over just to see what will happen when she wields power in the
the wolf's physical features—his big ears, big eyes, and big woods. She then uses this axe against the wolf while he's asleep,
teeth, which she seems to find both intimidating and sexy. The slicing him from his "scrotum" to his "throat," metaphorically
speaker seizes the moment, making sure that the wolf notices destroying both his sexual power and silencing his poetic voice.
her youthful, innocent demeanor and buys her her first Inside his body, she finds her grandmother's bones, which are
alcoholic drink. "virgin white." The speaker discards of her dead lover in the
same way Little Red Riding Hood discards of the wolf in the
The speaker addresses the reader, acknowledging that "you"
classic fairy tale: by filling his stomach with rocks and then
might wonder why she pursues a relationship with the wolf.
sewing him back up. Then she walks out of the woods on her
Then the speaker tells readers why: because of poetry. The
own, singing and with flowers in her hands.
speaker knows that the wolf will take her with him far into the
forest, away from the familiarity of her home and childhood, to
a frightening but intriguingly dark place filled with thorns and
watched over by owls. The speaker undergoes a difficult
THEMES
journey in pursuit of the wolf, describing herself as crawling
behind him through the woods, ripping and shredding her SEXUAL AWAKENING AND COMING OF
clothes in the process. Scraps of fabric from her red jacket get AGE
torn on branches and are left behind, like clues in a murder “Little Red Cap” captures a formative experience in
case. the speaker’s transition from childhood to adulthood: her first
The speaker loses both of her shoes in this pursuit as well, but sexual relationship. The poem alludes to the tale of Little Red
eventually makes it to the wolf's intimidating lair. There, the Riding Hood, in which a young girl is hoodwinked and eaten by
wolf gives the speaker her first lesson, which he calls "the love a wolf. This story is often understood as a metaphor for loss of
poem"; the implication is that the two have sex. An eager and sexual innocence, with the main character a naive girl led astray
active participant in this experience, the speaker also by a lascivious man. Duffy’s poem flips this idea on its head,
acknowledges that this encounter with the wolf is brutal; she however, granting her Little Red Cap a sense of both sexual
holds on tightly to his violently thrashing body throughout the curiosity and personal agency that allows her to emerge from
night. She seems to expect (even relish) this treatment, the experience with newfound independence. Sex, in Duffy’s
however; she wonders, don't all young women love wolves? poem, isn’t linked to a lamentable loss of purity, but rather is a
After this encounter, the speaker disentangles herself from the powerful awakening and a major step on the path toward
wolf's large paws and seeks out a white dove. adulthood.
When the speaker shows this bird to the wolf, however, he The poem begins “At childhood’s end”—figuratively portraying
immediately devours it in a single bite. The wolf licks his lips and childhood as a physical place that the speaker eagerly leaves
casually refers to this as "breakfast in bed." Later, when he is behind before reaching “the edge of the woods,” a place that
asleep, the speaker sneaks over to a wall in the wolf's lair that is represents the cusp between childhood and adulthood. It is
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here that the speaker “first clap[s] eyes on the wolf.” After
describing her attraction to the wolf, the poem emphasizes the • Lines 39-41
speaker’s curiosity and agency as a young woman exploring her • Line 42
sexuality: she makes the first move in their relationship: “I made
quite sure he spotted me." The poem then describes their first
sexual encounter as “lesson one … the love poem,” in which she ARTISTIC COMING-OF-AGE
“clung till dawn to [the wolf’s] thrashing fur,” again emphasizing In “Little Red Cap,” the speaker’s relationship with
the speaker’s active participation in and enjoyment of the the wolf also facilitates her artistic coming-of-age.
experience. The two themes run in parallel: just as the poem’s depiction of
The fact that the speaker plays an active role in her affair with sexual awakening is defined by a journey from innocence to
the wolf complicates the stereotype of an innocent young girl maturity, the poem depicts the speaker’s artistic coming-of-age
being taken advantage of by an experienced older man. She as a journey from inexperience to mastery, with the speaker
exerting the power of her own poetic voice over the wolf’s at
seeks out a sexual relationship with the wolf, knowing that it
the poem’s conclusion. Ultimately, the poem depicts achieving
will usher her into a scary yet exciting new stage of
artistic expression as a vital part of establishing personal
life—adulthood. Her decision is an informed one: “The wolf, I
agency, and as a method of empowerment for women in a male-
knew, would lead me deep into the woods / away from home, to
dominated world.
a dark thorny tangled place.” She is aware of the potentially
dangerous consequences of adult sexuality, but eager to From the start, the speaker is drawn to the wolf as much by his
explore them nonetheless. literary knowledge as by his sexual prowess, and hopes to learn
from him. At the opening of the third stanza, she explicitly
To that end, the poem describes the speaker's first sexual
explains her motivations for pursuing the wolf: “I made quite
encounter as a difficult journey: the speaker must “crawl in [the
sure he spotted me … You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.”
wolf’s] wake,” ripping and losing her clothes as she loses her
Just as she hopes the wolf will initiate her into adult sexuality,
innocence. The experience is far from gentle, but the speaker
she also hopes he will teach her what he knows about creating
still triumphantly declares that she "got there," eager to reach
art.
sexual maturity regardless of the violence of her experience.
Unfortunately, the wolf is as selfish a literary instructor as he is
Once the speaker has gotten what she wanted from the wolf,
a lover. After their first sexual encounter, the speaker must
however, their relationship begins to hold less appeal. Now that
disentangle herself from the wolf's firm grasp in order to
she too is a sexually mature adult, the speaker has nothing left
search for her own poetic voice, independent of the wolf's
to learn from the wolf. After ten years together, she has
influence. However, when she tries to share her poetry with
become disenchanted. The speaker takes an axe to the woods,
him, the wolf callously gobbles up her offering (“one bite, dead”)
the metaphor for her adolescence, “to see” how they
and goes back to sleep.
react—suggesting that the speaker is curious to learn what it
feels like to wield power for herself. Nevertheless, as a result of their relationship, the speaker still
gains access to the world of poetry, which the poem depicts as
Finally, the speaker murders the wolf with an axe, "one chop,
the real reward of their liaison. At the back of the wolf's lair,
scrotum to throat," ending his power over her. By taking control
"where a whole wall was ... aglow with books," the speaker has a
over their relationship, and brutally insisting on its conclusion,
deep, pleasurable response to the power of poetry. Indeed, the
the speaker asserts her agency as a sexual being. The poem
poem depicts her discovery of her own poetic voice as much
concludes with the speaker having completed her transition to
more exhilarating than her sexual experience with the wolf, and
adulthood on her own terms. No longer the child she was
also a vital step in her artistic evolution: “Words, words were
before entering the woods, she emerges from the forest
truly alive on the tongue, in the head / warm, beating, frantic,
independent and empowered.
winged; music and blood.” This stanza also captures the
necessity for female artists to discover their own means of
Where this theme appears in the poem:
expression within male-dominated artistic tradition.
• Line 1 From then on, poetry plays a vital role in the speaker’s growing
• Lines 5-6 maturity and is the means by which she empowers herself to
• Lines 7-11 leave the wolf and the woods. The sixth stanza's use of natural
• Lines 11-12
imagery suggests that the speaker's ability to better
• Lines 14-22
understand the woods indicates her growing artistic mastery,
• Lines 31-32
developed over ten years. It may have taken a decade "to tell ...
• Lines 32-34
that birds are the uttered thought of trees," but in that time the
• Lines 34-39
speaker has become fully confident in this space. Wielding an

axe, the speaker begins to attack the woods, the symbol of her at play, given that the speaker’s power comes, par
parado
adoxically
xically,
adolescence, and assert her own artistic voice and vision. from her lack of power.
Importantly, the poem attributes the speaker’s disenchantment Though the wolf is initially introduced as more prey than
with the wolf to his repetitious art, "the same old song ... year in, predator, once he becomes interested in the speaker, the poem
year out," as much as to his aging. It’s time for the speaker to shows him dominating their relationship. He “leads [her]” into
look elsewhere for artistic inspiration: to herself. When she the woods, dominates her with his “thrashing fur” and “heavy
murders the wolf, the speaker not only silences his voice, but matted paws,” and “lick[s] his chops” as he crushes the speaker’s
carves out space for her own. At the poem's conclusion, she first forays into artistic independence. Even if the speaker has
emerges from the woods alone but singing, suggesting that the sexual desire and agency, it’s still being expressed within a
speaker is fully confident in her poetic abilities. Having found broader world where men like the wolf hold more power. To
her own artistic voice, she wields it triumphantly and that end, the poem does not shy away from depicting the
independently. violence and brutality of the wolf’s sexual desire. The speaker
notes “better beware” as she enters the "wolf's lair" before
Where this theme appears in the poem: their first sexual encounter, and describes the clothes she
leaves behind—both an act of undressing and a loss of
• Lines 7-8
innocence—as “murder clues.”
• Lines 13-16
• Lines 23-30 Ultimately, as the speaker gains experience and wisdom, she
• Lines 31-32 realizes that despite having sexual agency, she still lacks true
• Lines 33-36 independence. The sixth stanza captures her disillusionment
• Lines 38-39 with the wolf and shows her growing awareness of the
• Line 42 oppressive nature of their relationship. She compares her
situation to a “mushroom / stopper[ing] the mouth of a buried
corpse.” By murdering the wolf, however, the speaker breaks
GENDER AND POWER free from the age-old power dynamic playing out between
Even as “Little Red Cap” celebrates the them and upends the patriarchal norms that have shaped her.
empowerment of a young woman in search of sexual What's more, when the speaker discovers “my grandmother’s
and artistic agency, it also examines the power dynamics at play [virgin white] bones” inside the wolf's body, the poem implies
when a girl’s coming-of-age takes place at the hands of an older that their relationship should be understood as part of a larger
man. Through the subversion of a well-known fairy tale, the history of men exploiting women. It suggests that not only has
poem demands that the reader reconsider the roles of the speaker exerted her own independence, she has also struck
predator and prey within broader societal systems of gender a blow at generations of male domination.
and power. By foregrounding the violence that accompanies The final image of the speaker as triumphant and independent
the wolf’s sexual appetite, “Little Red Cap” makes the case that supports a reading of “Little Red Cap” as a feminist depiction of
even in a consensual relationship, driven in part by female an empowered woman with agency. Nevertheless, the poem
sexual agency, misogyny and oppression are still major forces. has taken great pains to show us that she does not emerge
This is particularly true of a relationship like the one in the unscathed. In order to achieve true sexual and personal agency,
poem, where the power imbalance between the wolf and Little she has had to withstand, recognize, and ultimately put an end
Red Cap reinforces patriarchal influences on relations between to the predator and patriarchal norms that have shaped her
men and women. coming-of-age.
From the start, when Little Red Cap pursues the wolf, the poem
upends traditional understandings of predator and prey. Where this theme appears in the poem:
Though she calls him "the wolf," it is Little Red Cap who preys on
• Line 6
him, making "quite sure he spotted me, / sweet sixteen, never
• Lines 11-13
been, babe, waif." Each of these descriptors imply innocence
• Lines 16-22
and inexperience, even frailty, which is not entirely
• Lines 26-27
inaccurate—the speaker is indeed a teenager with limited • Lines 31-33
sexual experience. Nevertheless, by drawing attention to these • Lines 34-36
attributes, the speaker shows an awareness of the role she • Lines 38-40
must play to catch the wolf’s eye, even as she subverts that role • Line 42
through her active efforts to embody it. In other words, the
speaker knows she can play up her naiveté to attract the
wolf—a fact that in itself reflects some of the twisted dynamics

... had! What teeth!
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS The first stanza of "Little Red Cap" closes with a major moment
LINES 1-5 in the poem: "It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf."
This introduction of a first person speaker establishes Little
At childhood’s end, ... Red Cap's perspective as the dominant one in the poem. It also
... of the woods. introduces her as the instigator of her relationship with the
From the start, "Little Red Cap" subverts the classic fairy tale wolf: she spots him first! (Her active role is further emphasized
alluded to by its title. More commonly known today as Little by the subtle use of assonance linking "I" and "eyes.")
Red Riding Hood, this classic fairy tale of a girl hoodwinked and Line 6 also introduces the most extensive extended metaphor
eaten by a wolf is best known as a children's story. However, of the poem: "the wolf." Throughout the poem, the older man
Duffy's poem opens "At childhood's end," making clear from the with whom the speaker has a love affair is only ever referred to
get-go that her "Little Red Cap" is less interested in childish as the wolf. Though the next line indicates that the wolf is
tales and more interested in what comes next. indeed a human man (as well as a poet) he is nevertheless only
Additionally, this line introduces the poem's first extended ever described with animalistic qualities. In lines 8-10, these
metaphor by portraying childhood as a physical place, which include a "wolfy drawl," "hairy paw," and big ears, eyes, and
the speaker can leave behind just like she might walk out of a teeth. By consistently depicting him as a dangerous animal (not
neighborhood. Contributing to this metaphor are the use of to mention, the animal best known as the antagonist of the
"end" (a common suffix for street names in England, akin to original fairy tale) "Little Red Cap" makes the wolf's predatory
"Road" or "Avenue") and a list of familiar landmarks on the nature clear from the very beginning.
outskirts of town: "The houses petered out / into playing fields, Nevertheless, this dangerous quality is part of what attracts
the factory, allotments." Each of these landmarks, especially the the speaker's interest in the first place. Echoing lines from the
factory, paint the picture of a worn-out industrial town, and the original fairy tale, she exclaims: “What big ears / he had! What
further away the speaker goes, the emptier the landscape big eyes he had! What teeth!” In the fairy tale, the wolf's big
becomes, until all that's left are an abandoned railroad track features are traditionally presented as sources of fear. Here,
and a "hermit's caravan" in line 4, emphasizing the area's however, they represent sources of excitement as well, in which
isolation. the potential dangers and complexities of adult sexuality are
Along the way, in lines 2-3, the speaker describes the part of what make it so thrilling and enticing. Likewise, the
neighborhood allotments, or garden plots, as "kept, like wolf's mature masculinity, symbolized by the "red wine staining
mistresses, by kneeling married men." This strange simile offers his bearded jaw," is also a source of the speaker's attraction.
the poem's first hint at its interest in sexuality as a theme
theme. By First and foremost, however, it is the wolf's literary expertise
comparing two very unlike things—gardening and illicit love that catches the speaker's eye. She first notices that he is
affairs—it gives readers a glimpse into the speaker's state of reading his own verse out loud, and then draws attention to the
mind and her sexual curiosity as she exits her childhood. Last paperback in his hand. She herself has an interest in poetry, as
but not least, the use of asyndeton in these lines helps convey seen in the irregular, internal rh
rhyme
yme scheme of these lines,
the sensation of moving further and further away, of more and created through strong assonance and consonance of the /ee/,
more barriers appearing between the speaker's childhood and /aw/, and /r/ sounds:
the "woods."
Finally, at the end of this long walk, "you came at last to the He stood in a clear
earing, rea
reading his verse out loud
edge of the woods." This clear-cut boundary between childhood in his wolfy draawl, a paperback in his hairy paaw,
and the next stage of life symbolizes the cusp between red wine staining his bear
earded jaaw. What big ear
ears
childhood and adulthood. This line of the poem also contains
the first of only two uses of the second-person
second-person: "you came at The internal rhyme here achieves a sing-song quality,
last to the edge of the woods." By using "you," the poem invites reminiscent of a nursery rhyme, another childish literary form
readers to imagine themselves in the speaker's shoes, walking similar to a fairy tale. So too does the intense use of alliter
alliteration
ation
out of our own childhoods up to the edge of the woods. The and consonance, and the repetition in lines 9 and 10. Note the
second-person also creates an effect of universality—"you" many /d/, /r/, /p/, /b/, /h/, and /w/ sounds, plus the anaphor
anaphoraa of
could be any one reader, or it could be all of us—suggesting that "What":
the journey out of childhood and into adulthood is a shared
experience that everyone must face. He stood d in a clearring
ng, readding
ng his verrse out loudd
in his wolfy dr
draw wl, a papperrback in his hairry paw
w,
LINES 6-10 red wine staining his beard rdedd jaw
w. What big earrs
It was there ... he had d! What big eyes he had d! What teeth!

The overall effect suggests that the speaker, despite her enjambed
enjambed—but the exact terminology isn't all that important
eagerness to leave girlhood behind, is still very much a child, here. What matters is how the breaking up of this line
out of her element and not as in control as she thinks as she emphasizes the speaker's youth, dramatically drawing readers'
approaches the wolf. attention to the fact that this is not just any drink, but her very
first. This emphasis also highlights the sexual implications of
LINES 11-13 "my first," foreshadowing the pivotal role that the wolf is about
In the interval, ... to play in the speaker's sexual awakening and coming-of-age.
... my first.
LINES 13-16
In lines 11-13, the speaker captures the wolf's attention and
their relationship begins. These lines are pivotal to the poem's You might ask ...
thematic concerns, emphasizing the speaker’s curiosity and ... eyes of owls.
agency as a young woman exploring her sexuality. She makes Line 13 contains the poem's second and final use of the second
the first move in their relationship, saying, “I made quite sure he person
person: "You might ask why." Here, the speaker is directly
spotted me." Then she explains how she did so—ironically
ironically, by addressing her reader, acknowledging that they might be
playing up the very thing about herself that she is eager to wondering why she chooses to pursue the wolf. This instance of
leave behind: her youth. authorial intrusion reaffirms the speaker's active role in her
The speaker's use of clichés to describe her youthful air ("sweet relationship with the wolf, while also implicitly admitting to
sixteen, never been," which is an allusion to "never been readers that she understands the wolf's potential threat, and
kissed") shows readers that she is deliberately performing a feels a need to justify her actions.
role in order to attract the wolf's attention. She also describes Within the same line, the speaker then answers her own
herself as "babe, waif," both of which imply childishness, question: "Here's why. Poetry." In other words, the speaker is
innocence, and even fragility. These characteristics are indeed most interested in the wolf as an artistic role model. Her
accurate descriptions of the speaker, who is literally a teenager coming-of-age is more than just sexual; she names and lays
with limited sexual experience. Nevertheless, by demonstrating claim to her poetic ambitions, and suggests that they are her
awareness of her need to play up this image—innocent young top priority. This is an important moment in the poem, as seen
girl, naive and inexperienced—in order to attract the wolf's in its formal qualities. The poem's use of caesur
caesuraa in these short,
attention, the speaker subtly introduces the gendered power staccato sentences adds a boldness to the speaker's
imbalance between the two. Even though she is the one who declaration; the eye rhrhyme
yme at the end of "why" and "poetry"
pursues him, she understands the need to make the wolf feel deliberately draws readers' attention; and the repetition
like the powerful one in this situation. After all, the societal (technically, diacope
diacope) of "why" also adds weight and
norm (one might even say, cliché) is that of an older man significance.
seducing an innocent girl. The speaker then continues to explain her interest in the wolf
In this section of the poem, the poetic devices echo and throughout lines 14 -16:
reinforce the content. The assonance of "swee eet sixtee
een, never
bee
een" catches readers' attention in the same way the speaker The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
uses those qualities to catch the wolf's attention. The away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
alliter
alliteration
ation and consonance of "sure he spott tted me, / sweett lit by the eyes of owls.
sixt
xteen" and "nnever beenn, bab
be ... bought" achieves a similar
showy effect. Line 14 is another direct allusion to the fairy tale source
Last but certainly not least, note the structure of the final line material, in which Little Red Riding Hood journeys deep into
of the second stanza: the woods and is hoodwinked by a wolf. In the poem's case,
however, the speaker is not being tricked, but instead
...and bought me a drink, consenting to be led by the wolf into the woods. This is an
active and informed decision on her part. She knows full well
my first. that the wolf will lead her "away from home," or away from
childhood. (This line builds on the extended metaphor of the
This sentence is broken up not just between two lines, but first stanza in which childhood is symbolized by an old familiar
across the second and third stanza as well. This achieves a neighborhood.)
dynamic effect, propelling readers from one line and one stanza Confident that the wolf will lead her across the boundary
into the next in the same eager, headlong way that the speaker between childhood and adulthood, the speaker then describes
pursues the wolf. There is the slight pause of the comma here, what she anticipates on the other side: "a dark tangled thorny
meaning some readers may or may not mark this as being place." To some degree, this shows us that the speaker simply

doesn't know what to expect. After all, she's never been there of "murder clues" and "shoes," and the repeated use of
before. However, the poem's use of natural imagery to describe alliter
alliteration
ation ("sstockings/sh
shreds/sscraps/ssnagged/shshoes",
the speaker's destination also makes for a nuanced and enticing "b
blazer/bbranch/b both") and eye rhrhymes
ymes ("crawled/wake",
metaphor
metaphor. This "dark tangled" place represents both the "shreds/red") continue to suggest that though the speaker is no
mysterious world of sex as well as the intriguing world of longer a child, she is still not a fully-fledged adult or artist. Her
poetry, and its thorniness shows readers that the speaker poetry still has a childish, or inexperienced, quality to it.
anticipates adulthood will be full of difficulties and obstacles.
The use of asyndeton to describe it—not even a comma LINES 19-22
separates each word—adds an urgent quality to this place as but got there, ...
well. Regardless, it is also a place that promises greater ... love a wolf?
knowledge and wisdom, as symbolized by the "eyes of owls" Once again, the poem uses enjambment
enjambment, between lines 18 and
keeping watch. (Owls are common symbols of wisdom in 19 and the third and fourth stanzas, in order to mark an abrupt
literature, dating back to Greek mythology.) and hard-won advancement in the speaker's coming-of-age.
Here, it is the moment of her first sexual encounter:
LINES 16-18
I crawled in ... ... I lost both shoes
... lost both shoes
but got there, wolf's lair, better beware. ...
Lines 16-18 capture the arduous journey the speaker
undergoes in order to consummate her sexual relationship with The speaker's awareness of the danger that the wolf presents
the wolf. They also begin to show readers the painful has not faded—after all, she notes “better beware” as she
consequences of the power imbalance between the two. For enters his "lair"—but she still triumphantly tells readers she
starters, the speaker describes herself as “crawl[ing] in [the "got there." The back-to-back use of internal rh rhyme
yme and
wolf's] wake," emphasizing once again that she must alliter
alliteration
ation in the first half of line 19, followed by the markedly
demonstrate submission in order to receive the wolf's less sing-songy rest of Line 19 and Line 20, also hints at an
affection. abrupt shift in the speaker's perspective as her virginal status
As she crawls after him, the speaker rips and loses her clothes. comes to an end.
Not only do these lines serve as a metaphor for the literal act of Importantly, the speaker refers to her first sexual experience
undressing, they also highlight the speaker's youth and with the wolf as “lesson one … the love poem." This metaphor
innocence even as they capture the destruction of that does a lot of heavy lifting. Firstly, it reinforces the power
innocence: dynamic between the speaker and the wolf as inherently
unequal: he is the teacher, his "breath ... in [her] ear," and she is
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my the student. Secondly, it describes sex as a literary form, the
blazer love poem, reminding readers that through her relationship
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both with the wolf, the speaker is not just coming-of-age sexually but
shoes also artistically.
Despite this power imbalance, the poem shows readers that
Most vividly, the "scraps of red from my blazer" serve as an the speaker remains an active, eager participant, "[clinging] till
allusion to Little Red Cap's famous red hood, and remind dawn to his thrashing fur." Though the rough language
readers of just how young the speaker is, since she is still ("clinging," "thrashing") indicate that the speaker recognizes the
wearing what is implied to be her school uniform. These "scraps violence of her experience, she is eager to reach sexual
of red" can also be interpreted as blood shed by the speaker as maturity regardless.
she loses her virginity. Along with the sexualized symbol of torn
stockings and her two lost shoes, the speaker describes all of Line 22 also contains a subtle allusion to Sylvia Plath's poem
her clothing lost in the woods as "murder clues." This metaphor "Daddy
Daddy," which also depicts a damaging power imbalance
reinforces the poem's depiction of coming-of-age as a quest, or between a young girl and an older man (in that poem's case, her
search, with clues to be picked up along the way; it also father). "Daddy" contains the line, "Every woman adores a
ominously implies that the speaker's first sexual experience was Fascist," which similarly asserts the notion that a toxic power
both brutal and deadly, putting an irreversible end to her imbalance is a universal (and perhaps even a necessary) part of
childhood. young women's coming-of-age.
This section is characterized by enjambment and asyndeton

asyndeton, However, this poem's use of a rhetorical question in this
each line driving readers on to the next, just as the speaker moment—"for / what little girl doesn't love a wolf?"—also
moves forward in her journey. Additionally, the internal rh
rhyme
yme implies that that the speaker carries a little bit of doubt, or at

least is questioning her enjoyment of this troubling power In lines 27-28, she waits for him to return to sleep before she
dynamic. "[creeps] to the back / of the lair, where a whole wall was
crimson, gold, aglow with books." (Symbolically
Symbolically-speaking, the
LINES 23-27 crimson and gold colors are suggestive of sex and lust, making
Then I slid ... for an interesting contrast with the actual depictions of sex and
... licking his chops. lust in this poem, which receive far less glowing treatment.)
Lines 23-27 capture the speaker's first forays into poetry. After Entering this poetic space, the poem makes clear, is the real
her first sexual encounter with the wolf, she “slid[es] from reward of the speaker’s relationship with the wolf, as seen in
between his heavy matted paws / and [goes] in search of a lines 29-30:
living bird – white dove.”
The "living bird – white dove" may seem at first to be a symbol “Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the
of purity and innocence. However, having already head / warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and
enthusiastically lost her virginity, it is unlikely that the speaker blood.”
is "search[ing]" for her lost purity or innocence. Instead, her
"search [for] a living bird" suggests that she is looking for more These vivid, powerful lines portray the speaker’s encounter
out of this new stage of life, namely the opportunity for artistic with poetry as much more exciting than her sexual experience
exploration that attracted her to the wolf in the first place. with the wolf. Indeed, the language is almost orgasmic, a flood
of imagery that opens with epizeuxis
epizeuxis, or unbroken repetition
repetition,
The fact that she has to extract herself from the wolf's "heavy
reinforcing that it is the words with whom the speaker is having
matted paws" suggests that he himself has no interest in
a moment of communion. She has discovered her own poetic
facilitating the speaker's poetic ambitions. This interpretation is
voice, "alive on the tongue, in the head," and this revelation is
reinforced by what happens in line 25. The poem once again
both pleasurable and powerful. Once again, birds return as a
uses enjambment between stanzas to capture the abrupt and
metaphor for poetry: the speaker's poetic epiphany is "warm,
brutal way the wolf squashes the speaker's early attempts at
beating, frantic, winged." It also touches something deep and
poetry—the "white dove" flies "straight, from my hands to his
bodily within her, recalling the sexual crimson and gold glow of
open mouth. / One bite, dead." Her poetic offering, freely made,
the library, stirring both "music and blood." Here, too, the use of
is not just dismissed but consumed. Next, the wolf refers to the
asyndeton adds urgency to the moment.
speaker and her poems as “breakfast in bed" and "lick[s] his
chops" just like the wolf in the fairy tale. Not only do these lines depict a vital step in the speaker's
artistic evolution, they also capture the necessity for female
Evidently, as far as the wolf is concerned, the speaker is not a
artists to discover their own means of expression within male-
fellow poet, but a sexual object to be consumed. In other words,
dominated artistic traditions. After all, the wolf has done
his predatory nature extends beyond the bedroom to the
nothing to help, and even presents an obstacle to the speaker's
artistic sphere as well. Not only did the speaker have to use her
artistic growth. It is up to the speaker to sneak into "the back of
sexuality in order to get close to her artistic role model, now
the lair" in order to have her own direct, experience with
she discovers that the poetic sphere she was so eager to enter
poetry, which in turn empowers her to find her voice.
is also a male-dominated space.
This is subtly indicated through the form, as well: the only LINES 31-36
instances of alliter
alliteration
ation, consonance
consonance, and internal rh
rhyme
yme in this But then I ...
section occur when the wolf is gobbling up the speaker's ... rhyme, same reason.
poem—"One bite, dead d. How nice, breakfast in bed
d, he
The sixth stanza of the poem is largely made up of the speaker's
said
d"—metaphorically putting her back into the place of a child
reflections on her time in the woods with the wolf, and her
or student. Otherwise, these lines begin to hint at the speaker's
growing disillusionment with him and their relationship.
evolving poetic talent, as she uses longer, more complex
Tellingly, this stanza does not open with enjambment
enjambment: the
sentences and unrhymed verse to describe her poetic search.
speaker is no longer rushing headlong into each new stage of
LINES 27-30 this relationship. Instead, it begins, "But then I was young,"
hearkening back to the very first line of the poem,
As soon as ...
reestablishing and giving readers greater insight into the
... music and blood.
speaker's vantage point as she recalls her experiences with the
Despite his ineffectiveness as a literary mentor, by virtue of the wolf. Now, the speaker suggests, with the distance of time and
wolf's relationship with the speaker, she has gained access to age, she is better equipped to understand her experience: "It
the world of poetry, which the poem depicts as her moment of took ten years / in the woods to tell ..."
greatest fulfillment.
Using asyndeton to link a series of metaphors back to line 32,

the poem conveys just how much the speaker has learned over The enjambment between lines 36 and 37 (and stanzas 6 and
the past ten years. Firstly, lines 31-33 capture her growing 7) highlights the speaker's agency, throwing the moment when
awareness during that decade of the oppressive nature of her she picks up the axe into sharp relief:
relationship with the wolf. First, she compares her situation to a
“mushroom / stopper[ing] the mouth of a buried corpse,” ... I took an ax
axee
implying that she can only grow by silencing the wolf's voice, to a willow to see how it wept. ...
which holds all the power. Likewise, in lines 34-36, the
extended metaphor of the wolf is given new dimension, when Similarly, the repetition of "I took," three times, emphasizes the
the speaker tells us that she's also learned: speaker's growing strength and power. The steady, controlled
rhyme and rhythm of lines 36-38 ("wept," "leapt," and "slept")
... that a greying wolf also indicates her growing artistic mastery. Emboldened, the
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year next time the speaker picks up her axe is to attack "the wolf / as
out, he slept, one chop scrotum to throat," and murder him. This act
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. of violence ends his sexual power over her, and silences his
poetic voice (as the specific body parts imply). In doing so, the
No longer the intimidating yet sexy predator who first caught speaker has asserted her agency as a sexual being, and carved
the speaker's eye, the wolf has lost his appeal. It's not just out a space for her own voice to be heard.
because he's grown old. Using diacope ("same
same old song at the Inside the wolf’s body, the speaker discovers her
moon, year in, year out / season after season
season, same rhyme, "grandmother’s bones." This metaphor alludes to the original
same reason") to emphasize the speaker's boredom and fairy tale, in which Little Red Cap's grandmother gets eaten
frustration, the poem suggests that the wolf's song, which first by the wolf. It also implies that the speaker and wolf's
represents not only his own poetry but the omnipresence of relationship can be understood as part of a larger history of
male poetic voices like his, has become tired and uninspiring. men exploiting and silencing women. The line suggests that not
The speaker has realized that he has nothing new to say—or to only has the speaker exerted her own independence, she has
teach her. also struck a blow at generations of male power over both the
It’s time for the speaker to look elsewhere for artistic sexual and poetic spheres. That the bones are "glistening, virgin
inspiration: to herself. And, as lines 33-34 indicate, she now white" echoes the "white dove" of line 24, suggesting that the
knows how. Once again, "birds" appear as a metaphor for speaker's grandmother (and the other literary foremothers she
poetry; after "ten years / in the woods," the speaker has learned represents) was also once a young poet, whose voice was
"to tell that ... birds are the uttered thoughts of trees." The swallowed up by the male dominance of the literary canon.
trees, of course, are part of the woods, this in-between place on Importantly, though this stanza contains several allusions to the
the cusp of adulthood where the speaker has been living under fairy tale source material, including the use of an axe to murder
the wolf's influence. Thus, symbolically
symbolically-speaking, lines 33-34 the wolf, unlike the fairy tale, it is the speaker who frees herself,
suggest that the speaker's growing artistic mastery is the result rather than requiring rescue by a woodsman.
of her time in these woods, or, more literally, the result of her
deepening experience and knowledge. Good poetry, in other LINES 41-42
words, comes from the lived experience of growing older and I filled his ...
wiser—just as the speaker has suspected when she first left ... singing, all alone.
childhood in search of the new stage of life.
Line 41 ("I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.") is
LINES 36-40 an explicit allusion to the original fairy tale, in which Little Red
I took an ... Cap (with help from the woodsman) fills the wolf's belly with
... my grandmother’s bones. stones and sews him back up. In the fairy tale, the wolf wakes
back up after the attack, but can no longer chase after Little
In lines 36-38, the speaker takes an axe to a willow tree and Red Cap because of the heavy weight of the stones. Though the
salmon, just “to see” how they respond to violence. Now wolf in Duffy's poem is certainly dead, her Little Red Cap
confident of her place within the woods, she finally begins to performs the same actions on the wolf's body, metaphorically
exert her own power over this wolf/male-dominated sphere, ensuring that he remains in the woods (and her past) forever.
which throughout the poem has served as the metaphor for her
adolescence. These lines suggest that the speaker has begun to In line 42, the speaker emerges "out of the forest with my
interrogate the role that violence played in her coming-of-age, flowers." No longer the child she was before entering the
and also that she is curious to learn what it feels like to wield woods with the wolf, the speaker has completed her transition
such power for herself, rather than receive it. to adulthood on her own terms. She carries with her the only
souvenir she wishes to take into adulthood: flowers. This

natural imagery builds on but replaces the metaphor of the Interestingly, when the speaker exits the woods, there is no
birds, and seems to suggest the speaker's poetic ambitions symbolic bird accompanying her; instead, she carries flowers.
have finally bloomed into full fruition, and taken a new form. However, the poem does describe her as "singing," which is of
Tellingly, the form of the poem also mirrors this development. course something that birds also do. Having come-of-age
The alliter
alliteration
ation of "fforest" and "fflowers" draws particular artistically, the speaker no longer needs the birds to serve as
attention to this evolution, and the switch from "woods" to metaphors; now she, the poet, sings her own song.
"forest" hints that the speaker has already begun to see (and
tell) the story of her coming-of-age through a new, more Where this symbol appears in the poem:
mature lens.
• Line 16: “lit by the eyes of owls.”
Likewise, the fact that the speaker is singing out loud suggests • Lines 24-25: “went in search of a living bird – white dove
that she is proud of her poetry. Her voice has replaced that of – / which flew, straight, from my hands to his open
the wolf's, whom we first met reading his verse out loud. Having mouth.”
overcome a number of obstacles in order to find her own • Line 30: “warm, beating, frantic, winged”
unique poetic voice, the speaker wields her talent • Lines 33-34: “that birds / are the uttered thought of
triumphantly—and independently. The poem takes care to note trees”
that she is alone, drawing our attention to this fact with its final • Line 42: “singing”
internal rh
rhyme
yme ("stones"/"alone"). This final image ties a
triumphant bow on the journey, showing us a speaker who has
truly left "childhood's end" and come of age of her own accord. THE WOODS
The woods take on a symbolic meaning throughout
the poem. They first appear in line 5, still at a
SYMBOLS distance: the speaker leaves "childhood's end" and approaches
"the edge of the woods." The poem's emphasis on "the edge"
BIRDS makes clear that this is a crucial boundary, and that what lies
beyond that boundary is significant. Since childhood is behind
Throughout the poem, birds serve as a symbol for
the speaker, then naturally the woods symbolize the stage of
poetry and knowledge. When the speaker first
life that lies ahead: adulthood.
follows the wolf into the woods in stanza 3, she imagines him
leading her "to [the] dark tangled thorny place" of adult Woods are often dense, dark, and hard to navigate, which
sexuality and poetry. That place is also described as "lit by the makes them a particularly ripe symbol for the complexities of
eyes of owls." This is the first, subtle instance of birds making a adulthood. The speaker herself describes them as "a dark
symbolic appearance, representing the poetic wisdom and tangled thorny place" (and, importantly, identifies that place as
knowledge the speaker hopes to find within the woods. distinctly "away from home," her childhood). In her eyes, the
woods represent both the intriguing world of adult sexuality
More overtly symbolic is the moment in the final line of stanza
and the mysterious world of poetry. Both of those
4, when the speaker untangles herself from the wolf and goes
interpretations carry through the rest of the poem, as the
"in search of a living bird – white dove –". This "living" bird
speaker develops into a sexually mature and artistically
represents the speaker's artistic ambitions as she enters a new
powerful adult within the woods. This is particularly evident in
stage of life. Her first poems are symbolized by a "white dove,"
stanza 6, when the speaker says "it took ten years in the
since the speaker is still in the process of coming-of-age
woods" for her to realize her own poetic power and grow
artistically. Though she has lost her virginity by this point in the
disenchanted with the wolf.
poem, her poetry is still innocent and unformed.
In lines 37 and 38, the speaker even attacks elements of the
After that "white dove" gets eaten by the wolf, the speaker uses
woods—a willow tree and a salmon—as she begins to
his library to grow her artistic experience. Here, in a moment of
interrogate the role that violence played in bringing her into
literary ecstasy, she describes her discovery of her poetic voice
the woods, and wield it for herself. This moment can be
as a "warm, beating, frantic, winged" experience, again
interpreted as the speaker attacking her own adolescence,
conjuring bird-like imagery.
dismantling the final trappings of youth that have kept her from
By stanza 6, after spending a decade with the wolf, the speaker fully achieving adult maturity.
informs readers that she has learned "to tell ... that birds are the
Finally, in the poem's final line, the speaker leaves the woods an
uttered thought of trees." Once again, the birds represent
empowered, independent woman. For the first time, the woods
poetry, and this time the speaker can confidently trace their
are referred to as "the forest," perhaps indicating that the
origins to the "trees" within the woods where she has been
speaker has already begun to search for new symbolic language
evolving as an artist.
now that she is out of the woods and full-fledged adult at last.

oppressed by men, whether by having their voices silenced by
Where this symbol appears in the poem:
the male literary canon, or by finding themselves on the other
• Line 5: “the edge of the woods.” end of an exploitative sexual relationship. By murdering the
• Line 14: “deep into the woods,” wolf, and freeing her grandmother's bones, the speaker
• Line 15: “dark tangled thorny place” symbolically empowers not just herself but the women who
• Line 19: “got there, wolf’s lair, better beware.” have come before her.
• Lines 31-32: “ten years / in the woods”
• Lines 36-38: “ I took an axe / to a willow to see how it Where this symbol appears in the poem:
wept. I took an axe to a salmon / to see how it leapt.”
• Line 42: “Out of the forest” • Line 40: “the glistening, virgin white of my
grandmother’s bones.”
WHITE AND RED

BOOKS AND POETRY
Throughout the poem, the colors white and red are
used symbolically to represent innocence and There are several references to books and poetry
maturity, respectively. (Color frequently serves a symbolic throughout the poem. The wolf is first spotted with
purpose in fairy tales, adding to this poem's fairy tale qualities "reading his verse out loud ... a paperback in his hairy paw," and
as it tackles Little Red Riding Hood from a new perspective.) later the speaker creeps into his library, "aglow with books," in
order to discover poetry for herself. Of course, line 13 explicitly
White is the color of purity, innocence, and youth. The
uses the word "Poetry," as the speaker justifies her motivations
speaker's first attempts at poetry are symbolized by not just
for seeking out a sexual relationship with the wolf.
any bird but a pure "white
white dove." Likewise, her grandmother's
bones, which represent the generations of women before her These can all be understood as literal references to books and
who have been repressed sexually and artistically, are also the art of poetry, since the poem's characters are both poets.
described as "virgin white
white." Their color implies that they never Nevertheless, they should also be interpreted as symbolic,
had a chance to mature. carrying more weight than just a physical object or mundane
subject matter. Throughout the poem, it is clear that the
In contrast, the wolf is first introduced with "red
red wine" staining
speaker views books and poetry as gateways to knowledge, and
his jaw, immediately marking him as older and more sexually
as the path to adulthood. It is the wolf's poetic expertise that
mature than the speaker. The "scraps of redred" from the speaker's
first catches her eye; poetry that motivates her to pursue a
blazer also hint at her maturing sexuality, symbolizing drops of
relationship with him; and poetry that gives her the most
blood as she loses her virginity and innocence at the wolf's
gratification as she comes-of-age. By the poem's conclusion, it
hands. Later, she describes the wolf's library as "crimson,"
is only because the speaker has mastered the art of poetry and
which tells us that the world of poetry is also a mature, adult
(violently) made space for her uniquely female voice that she is
space.
able to officially transition into adult life. Clearly, books and
poetry are more than just ordinary objects; they symbolize, in
Where this symbol appears in the poem: many ways, free expression and the possession power.
• Line 9: “red wine”
• Line 17: “scraps of red” Where this symbol appears in the poem:
• Line 24: “white dove ”
• Line 7: “reading ”
• Line 28: “crimson”
• Line 8: “paperback ”
• Line 40: “virgin white”
• Line 13: “Poetry.”
• Line 28: “aglow with books.”
GRANDMOTHER'S BONES
In the final stanza of the poem, the speaker finds "the
glistening, virgin white of my grandmother's bones" POETIC DEVICES
inside the wolf's body. This is firstly an allusion to the original
fairy tale, in which the heroine's grandmother is eaten by the ALLUSION
wolf. However, since Duffy's poem lacks a grandmother The entirety of "Little Red Cap" is an allusion to the fairy tale
character, it becomes clear that these bones are serving a more "Little Red Riding Hood." (First published in 1812 by the
symbolic purpose. Here, rather than representing a literal Brothers Grimm, the story was originally called "Little Red
grandmother, they become a stand-in for the generations of Cap," just like Duffy's poem.) Though her poem offers a feminist
women who have preceded the speaker. They, too, have been reinterpretation of the story, with an empowered Little Red

Cap driving much of the action, there are a number of instances
where the poem directly alludes to its fairy tale origins. had! What teeth!”
The first, of course, is the title itself. The second are its • Lines 14-19: “The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into
characters: a young girl on the brink of maturity, an allusion to the woods, / away from home, to a dark tangled thorny
place / lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake, / my
Little Red Cap herself; and the older man she has an affair with,
stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
who is always referred to by the title "the wolf." This is of course
/ snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both
an explicit allusion to the "Big Bad Wolf" of the fairy tale, who
shoes / but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware.”
pursues the heroine and (in some versions) gobbles up both her
• Lines 26-27: “How nice, breakfast in bed, he said, /
and her grandmother before they are rescued by a passing licking his chops.”
woodsman. The wolf is even described using lines from the • Lines 38-41: “I took an axe to the wolf / as he slept, one
fairy tale—"What big ears / he had! What big eyes he had! What chop, scrotum to throat, and saw / the glistening, virgin
teeth!"—and is consistently given animalistic traits, such as white of my grandmother’s bones. / I filled his old belly
hairy paws and fur. with stones. I stitched him up.”
The speaker's journey "deep into the woods" is also an allusion • Line 42: “Out of the forest I come with my flowers,
to the plot of the fairy tale. Both the poem and the fairy tale singing, all alone.”
show their heroine having some harrowing experiences in the
woods, including being caught by the menacing wolf. In the ASSONANCE
poem, the speaker is a consensual participant in their "Little Red Cap" is concerned with the end of childhood, and
relationship (unlike the fairy tale, where Little Red Riding Hood assonance is one of the most common techniques it uses to
is first tricked and then eaten) but the centrality of the allusion convey childishness or innocence. The most prominent effect it
tells readers that there's a predatory side to the wolf in the achieves, particularly in stanzas 2-4, is that of a sing-song or
poem, as well. nursery rhyme cadence, which mirrors the speaker's
Other allusive references to the fairy tale include: childishness at the beginning of the poem. Later, as the use of
assonance fades away or become more controlled, it indicates
• the "scraps of red" torn from the speaker's school the speaker's growing maturity.
blazer, which of course are allusions to the famous For example, stanza 2 is rife with /ee/ and /aw/ vowel sounds:
red hood of the fairy tale character;
• the image of the wolf and the speaker in bed
... clea
earing, rea
eading his verse out loud
together, which conjures up the fairy tale image of
in his wolfy draawl, a paperback in his hairy paaw,
the wolf in bed, dressed in grandmother's clothing;
• the phrase "licking his chops," which echoes the fairy red wine staining his bea earded jaaw. What big ear
ears
tale wolf's consumption of Little Red Riding Hood hee had! What big eyes hee had! What tee eeth!
and her grandmother ... hee spotted mee,
• the axe that the speaker uses to kill the wolf, which is sweet sixtee een, never bee
een ...
the same weapon used in the fairy tale;
• the grandmother inside the wolf's body; Here, the introduction of the wolf—despite his predatory
• the act of filling the wolf's belly with stones and nature—is cloaked in the reassuring repetition of a children's
sewing him up, which also takes place in the original story, so that some of the warning signs, like his big teeth, go
fairy tale, in order to weigh the wolf down and unheeded. Likewise, though the speaker thinks of herself as
prevent him from chasing after Little Red Riding more mature than she really is, the assonance of "swee eet
Hood again; sixtee
een, never beeeen" and "baabe, wai
aif," reminds readers that she
• the flowers carried by the speaker as she leaves the really is play-acting at being an adult, using scripted lines and
woods might allude to the opening of the original behaviors, and may not fully understand the consequences.
fairy tale, when Red Riding Hood wanders off the
Stanza 3 is full of assonance as well. Here, the repetition serves
path to her grandmother's house because she is
as enticement:
picking flowers, which is how the wolf finds her.
The wolf, I knew, would lea
ead mee dee
eep into the woods,
Where Allusion appears in the poem:
The repeated /ee/ sound lulls readers into the woods right
• Lines 5-6: “till you came at last to the edge of the woods.
along with the speaker. Later in the stanza, the internal rh
rhyme
yme
/ It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf.”
of "murder clue
ues" and "both shoeoes" likewise makes light of
• Lines 9-10: “What big ears / he had! What big eyes he
something that should be much scarier: the speaker's brutal

disrobing and loss of innocence. The same can be said for the throughout "Little Red Cap." Every stanza contains at least one,
assonance of "but got theere, wolf’s lai
air, better bewaare." Later and usually several, long sentences that break across multiple
the assonance in "One biite, dea
ead. How niice, breakfast in beed, lines. The effect is a breathless forward motion, propelling
he sai
aid." serves a similar purpose, reflecting the easy readers through the poem with the same excitement as the
nonchalance with which the wolf destroys the speaker's speaker, particularly in the first two stanzas, as she exits her
offering. childhood and first encounters the wolf. In stanza 6, in which
By stanza 6, however, the assonance is more controlled. the poem delivers a list of what the speaker has come to realize
"Sea
eason after sea
season, same rhyme, same rea eason," the speaker after spending ten years in the wolf, the enjambment continues
complains of the wolf, and now the cadence is less sing-songy, to drive readers forward, but this time the effect is a mounting
more explosive, more of a threat. Indeed, in the next sentence, sense of frustration.
the speaker murders the wolf. Likewise, we see assonance in Enjambment also occurs between stanzas in this poem:
the internal rhyme of "weept," "lea
eapt," and "sleept," as she
deliberately practices using her axe before turning it on the • "I lost both shoes / but got there"
wolf. Paired with the consonance of those hard /pt/ sounds, the • "white dove - / which flew, straight ... to his open
effect is far more brutal. mouth"
• "I took an axe / to a willow"
Finally, assonance appears one last time, rhyming "oold,"
"sto
ones," and "alo
one." The long /o/ sound sounds lonely, but it
The second stanza might also be considered enjambed,
also sounds more mature than the bright assonance of the
depending on the reader; though there is indeed a comma after
early stanzas, in the same way that the speaker herself has
"drink," the sentence doesn't actually come to a rest until the
grown more mature.
following line.
Where Assonance appears in the poem: Those instances all serve as abrupt ruptures. Though they
likewise create a sense of forward motion, these uses of
• Line 1: “petered” enjambment also help highlight major moments in the
• Line 2: “fields” speaker's development on her journey to adulthood. Because
• Line 6: “I,” “eyes” the line break occurs across stanzas, there is slightly more of a
• Line 7: “clearing, reading,” “out loud” deliberate pause (both visually and when read out loud), which
• Line 8: “drawl,” “paperback,” “paw” opens up interpretative space for both the speaker and the
• Line 9: “staining,” “bearded jaw,” “ears” reader to interrogate what's happening in the poem.
• Line 10: “teeth”
• Line 11: “he,” “me” For example, take the enjambment between stanzas 3 and 4
• Line 12: “sweet sixteen,” “been,” “babe, waif” (lines 18 and 19):
• Line 13: “my,” “might,” “why,” “why”
• Line 14: “lead me deep” snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both
• Line 17: “shreds,” “red” shoes
• Line 18: “clues,” “shoes” but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. ...
• Line 19: “there,” “lair,” “beware”
• Line 26: “bite,” “dead,” “nice,” “breakfast,” “bed,” “said” The speaker loses both shoes as she chases after the wolf, and
• Line 27: “slept,” “crept” the abrupt break in the line reflects this sense of toppling,
• Line 28: “gold, aglow” clumsy forward motion. It also creates a sense of inevitability;
• Line 29: “tongue” the speaker surges along, not even pausing for a breath,
• Line 30: “blood” seemingly propelled into the wolf's lair. And after the white
• Line 31: “young” space of the stanza break, the speaker triumphantly declares
• Line 36: “season,” “season,” “reason” she "got there." Enjambment here suggests that readers ought
• Line 37: “wept” to linger longer on the ominous implications of the speaker's
• Line 38: “leapt,” “wolf” chase. Why has she had to go to such lengths to win the wolf's
• Line 39: “slept,” “scrotum,” “throat” attention? Was it really worth it? The enjambment itself doesn't
• Line 40: “bones” answer these questions, but it does prompt readers to ask
• Line 41: “old,” “stones” them.
• Line 42: “alone”
Where Enjambment appears in the poem:
ENJAMBMENT
• Lines 1-2: “out / into ”
Enjambment is one of the primary poetic devices used

• Lines 2-3: “allotments / kept” • Line 1: “At childhood’s end,”

• Lines 7-8: “loud / in” • Line 6: “the wolf.”
• Lines 9-10: “ears / he” • Line 8: “wolfy drawl,” “hairy paw,”
• Lines 15-16: “place / lit” • Lines 9-10: “What big ears / he had! What big eyes he
• Lines 17-18: “blazer / snagged” had! What teeth!”
• Lines 21-22: “for / what” • Line 14: “The wolf,,” “ I knew, would lead me deep into the
• Lines 23-24: “paws / and” woods,”
• Lines 24-25: “dove – / which” • Line 15: “away from home, to a dark tangled thorny
• Lines 27-28: “back / of” place”
• Lines 31-32: “years / in” • Line 19: “wolf’s lair,”
• Lines 32-33: “mushroom / stoppers” • Line 27: “licking his chops.”
• Lines 33-34: “birds / are” • Line 34: “a greying wolf”
• Lines 34-35: “wolf / howls” • Lines 35-36: “howls the same old song at the moon, year
• Lines 36-37: “axe / to” in, year out, / season after season, same rhyme, same
• Lines 37-38: “salmon / to” reason”
• Lines 38-39: “wolf / as” • Line 38: “I took an axe to the wolf”
• Lines 39-40: “saw / the”
METAPHOR
EXTENDED METAPHOR "Little Red Cap" is full of metaphors used to describe the world
There are three major extended metaphors taking place across and experiences of the poem. This makes sense, since the
"Little Red Cap." The first is introduced in the very first line: "At speaker is herself a poet, turning to figurative language to make
childhood's end." From the start, childhood stops being an sense of this key transition in her life.
abstract concept, and becomes a metaphorical neighborhood For example, as the poem captures the speaker's first sexual
that the speaker has to physically exit by walking up to the edge encounter by describing her ripped and torn clothing, the
of the woods. Though this extended metaphor primarily speaker conveys the brutality of the experience (and its
appears in the first stanza, it lays the foundation for the entire irreversible effect) by metaphorically describing her discarded
poem and the metaphors and symbols that follow. Line 15 also clothes as "murder clues." Likewise, sex with the wolf is "lesson
uses this metaphor, when the speaker directly contrasts "the one" and "the love poem," transforming the encounter into both
woods" of adulthood with "home," another way of referring to a moment of sexual instruction and a literary form.
her childhood, since childhood is the metaphorical
When the speaker discovers her poetic voice, that moment is
neighborhood in which she grew up.
also conveyed via metaphor. "Words" are described as "alive,"
"The woods," of course, are the second extended metaphor. Set "warm, beating, frantic, winged" and implicitly compared to
up in contrast to "childhood's end," they represent a borderline "music and blood." All of these figurative comparisons
space between childhood and adulthood throughout the poem, transform poetry into a bodily experience, thereby conveying
which readers can perhaps consider adolescence or young the magnitude of this moment in the speaker's life.
adulthood. By metaphorically making this stage of life a physical
Birds are another metaphor used throughout the poem, taking
place, the poem is able to use imagery and symbolism to
on a larger symbolic resonance. The "white dove" of stanza 4
deepen and complicate the metaphor, particularly in stanzas 3
represents the speaker's early attempts at poetry, while the
and 6.
"birds" that "are the uttered thought of trees" in stanza 6 (while
Last but not least, the most extensive extended metaphor in the no longer pure white) represent the speaker's more mature
poem is "the wolf." Meant to represent the speaker's older poems. Stanza 6 brims with natural metaphors, comparing the
lover, he is always referred to as "the wolf." This metaphor speaker's oppressive relationship with the wolf to "a mushroom
achieves a number of purposes. Firstly, it's the foundation for / stopper[ing] the mouth of a buried corpse" and the wolf's
the fairy tale allusion to "Little Red Cap." But it's also the big repetitious and domineering poetic voice to "the same old
interpretative clue of the poem, suggesting that even when the song" being howled at the moon. Finally, when the speaker
speaker is most besotted with this older man, he is still "a wolf," emerges from the forest, she holds a bunch of flowers, which
a predatory figure as dangerous as he is alluring. His role, take on metaphorical meaning as well—these are the only
helping the speaker come-of-age both sexually and artistically, souvenirs she brings with her out of the woods, suggesting that
is pivotal. her poetry has achieved full bloom.
Where Extended Metaphor appears in the poem:

Where Metaphor appears in the poem: Where Repetition appears in the poem:
• Line 18: “murder clues.” • Lines 9-10: “What big ears / he had! What big eyes he
• Line 19: “Lesson one” had! What teeth!”
• Line 20: “love poem” • Line 13: “You might ask why. Here’s why.”
• Line 24: “a living bird – white dove –” • Line 29: “Words, words”
• Line 29: “Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in • Lines 35-36: “same old song at the moon, year in, year
the head,” out, / season after season, same rhyme, same reason.”
• Line 30: “warm, beating, frantic, winged; ,” “music and • Lines 36-38: “I took an axe / to a willow to see how it
blood.” wept. I took an axe to a salmon / to see how it leapt. I
• Lines 32-33: “a mushroom / stoppers the mouth of a took an axe to the wolf”
buried corpse”
• Lines 33-34: “birds / are the uttered thought of trees,” ALLITERATION
• Line 35: “howls the same old song”
"Little Red Cap" is littered with alliter
alliteration
ation. Arguably there is
• Line 42: “Out of the forest I come with my flowers, ”
not a single line in which this device does not appear, though
some moments are stronger than others. Alliteration often
REPETITION helps to emphasize certain phrases and to create connections
Repetition in "Little Red Cap" is often used for emphasis, between words. For example, note the alliteration between
drawing the reader's attention to pivotal moments in the poem. "w
wolf" and "wwoods" in lines 5 and 6; though spaced out, these
In stanza 2, the anaphor
anaphoraa and epistrophe of "What
What big ears he sounds clearly create an echo that will resound throughout the
had
had! What big eyes he had
had! What teeth!" highlights the poem. It's fitting that these two things are connected via sound,
speaker's attraction to the wolf, as well as warning readers (and given that both facilitate the speaker's coming of age.
her) of the potential danger he presents. More broadly, like the poem's use of assonance and
Anaphora (along with par
parallelism
allelism) appears again toward the consonance
consonance, the repetition of sounds reminds readers of
end of the poem, each time underscoring the speaker's nursery rhymes or children's stories. On the one hand, this
determination and empowerment; the repetition here makes it might emphasize the youth of the speaker. Take lines 11-12,
feel as though the speaker is practicing with the axe, using it on which, as we note in this guide's discussion of assonance, draw
plants and fish before attempting to take down the wolf: attention to the speaker's immaturity. The song-song like
sounds make it seem like the speaker is simply repeating
... I took an ax
axee scripted lines and behaviors as she flaunts her innocence to the
to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axaxee to a wolf, and, as such, that she may not fully understand the
salmon consequences of her actions yet:
to see how it leapt. I took an ax
axee to the wolf ...
... I made quite sure he spotted me,
Stanza 5, line 29, contains a brief moment of epizeuxis
epizeuxis, in which sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me
the speaker marvels, "Words, words" and then goes on to a drink,
describe her ecstatic response to these words. The back-to-
back repetition here makes clear that "words" are the most Alliteration—again, like the poem's use of assonance and
important thing to the speaker's development into adulthood, consonance—also adds a musical quality to the language, which
more valuable even than the wolf himself. (This moment can lends the poem a feeling of lightness, despite the mature
also be read as a subtle allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet, subject matter. Take lines 17-20, in which the speaker is
implicitly comparing the speaker of this poem to one of crawling through the woods to follow the wolf:
literature's loftiest intellectual role models, who also repeats,
"Words, words, words.") my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my
In stanza six, the poem uses diacope as the speaker complains blazer
that the wolf "howls the same old song at the moon, year in, snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both
year out, / season after season
season, same rhyme, same reason." The shoes
repetition imbues these lines themselves with a sense of but got there, wolf’s lair, better bew
ware. Lesson one
"sameness," thereby expertly evoking the very thing the lines that night,
are talking about. This controlled form of repetition helps breath of the wolf in my ear ...
convey the speaker's growing frustration, and indicates her
growing mastery over her poetic voice as well. These lines are full of /s/, /r/, /w/, and /b/ sounds. Note that

alliteration can refer to shared sounds at the beginning of ASYNDETON
words as well as at the start of stressed syllables, hence why Asyndeton is a frequently-used poetic device within the poem.
we've marked the /w/ sound in "bew ware" as alliterative with It often helps to convey the sense of a dramatic monologue, in
"w
wolf"—a sonic connection that underscores how dangerous which the speaker is telling her own story and adding phrases
the wolf is. as they come to her. The first example occurs within the first
Lastly, alliteration is also a very showy poetic device, especially few lines, as the speaker leaves childhood behind, and
used in such an enormous quantity. This makes sense for a describes the landmarks she passes along the way. The lack of
poem about poetry. Language, and all the ways it can be conjunctions in this laundry list feels both conversational,
manipulated and magnified, is on full display here. introducing us to the poem's tone, and meandering, mirroring
the actions taken by the speaker as she walks away from her
Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem: childhood. Not until she reaches the woods does the use of
asyndeton end, with "till," emphasizing the long journey the
• Line 1: “petered”
speaker has taken:
• Line 2: “playing,” “fields,” “factory”
• Line 3: “mistresses,” “married men” The wolf is introduced in a similar manner in stanza 2, each of
• Line 4: “caravan” his attributes stacking one on top of the other without any
• Line 5: “came,” “woods” coordinating conjunctions:
• Line 6: “was,” “there that,” “I,” “clapped,” “eyes,” “wolf”
• Line 7: “clearing” He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud
• Line 8: “wolfy,” “paperback,” “paw,” in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw,
• Line 9: “wine,” “bearded,” “big” red wine staining his bearded jaw.
• Line 10: “he had,” “big,” “he had”
• Line 11: “spotted” And the same, of course, can be said for how the speaker
• Line 12: “sweet sixteen,” “been, babe,” “bought” describes herself: "sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif."
• Line 13: “my,” “might,” “why,” “why” Later, as she crawls after the wolf, asyndeton emphasizes the
• Line 14: “wolf,” “would,” “woods” speaker's process of disrobing, and the way one item after
• Line 15: “away” another gets lost or torn:
• Line 16: “wake”
• Line 17: “stockings,” “scraps,” “blazer”
I crawled in his wake,
• Line 18: “snagged,” “branch,” “both”
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my
• Line 19: “but,” “wolf’s,” “better beware”
blazer
• Line 20: “breath,” “wolf,” “was”
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues.
• Line 21: “fur, for”
• Line 22: “doesn’t dearly”
Asyndeton pops up again when the speaker finds the wolf's
• Line 23: “his heavy”
• Line 24: “went,” “white” library. The influx of phrases without any conjunctions creates a
• Line 25: “which,” “flew,” “from,” “hands,” “his” sense of chaos, mirroring the intense, ecstatic response the
• Line 26: “bite,” “breakfast,” “bed” speaker has what she reads:
• Line 27: “soon,” “slept”
• Line 28: “where,” “wall was,” “gold, aglow” a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
• Line 29: “Words, words were,” “truly,” “tongue” Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the
• Line 30: “warm,” “beating,” “winged,” “blood” head,
• Line 31: “But,” “took ten” warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.
• Line 32: “to tell”
• Line 33: “buried,” “birds” The speaker's disillusionment with the wolf is also conveyed
• Line 35: “same,” “song,” “year,” “year” throughout asyndeton, each metaphor a clause branching off
• Line 36: “season,” “season,” “same,” “same” her original statement that "it took ten years in the woods / to
• Line 37: “willow,” “wept,” “salmon” tell":
• Line 38: “see”
• Line 39: “slept,” “scrotum,” “saw” that a mushroom
• Line 40: “glistening,” “grandmother’s,” “bones” stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
• Line 41: “belly,” “stones,” “stitched” are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
• Line 42: “forest,” “flowers” howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year
out,

season after season, same rhyme, same reason.
Where Rhetorical Question appears in the poem:
Ultimately, the device's greatest achievement is its • Lines 21-22: “for / what little girl doesn’t dearly love a
conversational tone, drawing readers in to the speaker's story, wolf?”
and helping them understand what she has to say.
CAESURA
Where Asyndeton appears in the poem: As makes sense for a narrative poem, "Little Red Cap" contains
• Lines 1-5: “At childhood’s end, the houses petered out / a good deal of caesur
caesuraa. As she tells her story, the speaker
into playing fields, the factory, allotments / kept, like pauses and reflects, and her conversational tone is full of
mistresses, by kneeling married men, / the silent railway clauses and asides, as she adds detail and description. Just
line, the hermit's caravan, / till you came at last to the about any mid-line comma in the poem can be considered a
edge of the woods.” moment of caesura, but there are a few instances when this
• Lines 7-9: “reading his verse out loud / in his wolfy drawl, device is used for a stronger effect.
a paperback in his hairy paw, / red wine staining his The first comes in lines 9-10, when the speaker exclaims over
bearded jaw.” the wolf's features: "What big ears / he had! What big eyes he
• Line 12: “sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, ” had! What teeth!" These are the only exclamation points in the
• Lines 16-18: “I crawled in his wake, / my stockings ripped
whole poem, and the caesura they create has an emphatic
to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer / snagged on twig
effect, showing readers the speaker's enthusiasm and
and branch, murder clues.”
excitement.
• Lines 28-30: “where a whole wall was crimson, gold,
aglow with books. / Words, words were truly alive on the Similarly, in line 13, the caesura of "You might ask why. Here’s
tongue, in the head, / warm, beating, frantic, winged; why. Poetry," helps show readers the speaker's attitude in this
music and blood.” moment. Her choppy sentences draw readers' attention, and
• Lines 32-36: “to tell that a mushroom / stoppers the the hard end-stops convey her determination (and potentially
mouth of a buried corpse, that birds / are the uttered some defensiveness, as well). In the next line, the momentary
thought of trees, that a greying wolf / howls the same old aside of "I knew," sandwiched between two commas, does
song at the moon, year in, year out, / season after season, similar work, as the speaker makes sure to remind readers that
same rhyme, same reason.” she is entering this situation without any blinders on.
Two other notable instances of caesura employ dashes. Once
RHETORICAL QUESTION again, they draw attention to important symbols and moments.
Lines 21-22, “for / what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?” The first occurs in line 24, when the speaker first sets off in
contains the poem's only use of a rhetorical question
question. Like the search of her own poetic voice ("living bird - white dove -"). The
moment when the speaker addresses the reader and says, "You second takes place in line 31, as the speaker takes stock of her
might ask why," this rhetorical question invites the reader into youth at the beginning of the poem—"But then I was young –
the poem. and it took ten years"—and then begins to reflect on everything
This time, however, by nature of the rhetorical question, the she learned in the ten years after that.
poem and speaker do not deliver an answer. It is up to readers
to decide whether they agree with the speaker's implication Where Caesur
Caesuraa appears in the poem:
that all little girls "dearly love a wolf." It's a fraught • Line 1: “end, the”
concept—that all young women enjoy, on some level, being • Line 2: “fields, the factory, allotments”
brutalized, or at the very least treated only as sexual objects. • Line 3: “kept, like mistresses, by”
That said, the question isn't necessarily sincere; the speaker • Line 4: “line, the”
might be mocking a societal idea that young women long to be • Line 7: “clearing, reading”
dominated or lusted after. • Line 8: “drawl, a”
The poem's use of a rhetorical question in this moment may • Line 9: “jaw. What”
also imply that the speaker may not know how she feels. • Line 10: “had! What,” “had! What”
Perhaps, at the time, she did enjoy sex with the wolf, but is now • Line 11: “interval, I”
looking back through older eyes and feels differently. Perhaps • Line 12: “sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and”
she wonders if she was only doing what she thought she was • Line 13: “first. You,” “why. Here’s why. Poetry”
supposed to do in going along with the wolf. And perhaps not! • Line 14: “wolf, I knew, would”
The interpretation is left to readers' imaginations. • Line 15: “home, to”
• Line 16: “owls. I”

for a girl or woman, especially one who is sexually attractive. In
• Line 17: “shreds, scraps” the poem, this word both reinforces the speaker's youth and
• Line 18: “branch, murder clues. I” marks her as sexually desirable young woman.
• Line 19: “there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson” Waif (Line 12) - An extremely thin and usually young woman.
• Line 20: “ear, was” Sometimes used to describe a woman's ill health, here it can be
• Line 21: “fur, for”
understood as another way to highlight the speaker's youth,
• Line 24: “bird – white”
and perhaps imply her frailty or fragility.
• Line 25: “ flew, straight, from”
• Line 26: “bite, dead. How nice, breakfast,” “bed, he” Stockings (Line 17) - Pantyhose, or tights, which are worn over
• Line 27: “chops. As,” “slept, I” the foot and leg, usually by women.
• Line 28: “lair, where,” “crimson, gold, aglow” Lair (Line 19, Line 28) - The resting or living place of a wild
• Line 29: “Words, words,” “tongue, in” animal. Also used to describe a hiding place, usually with
• Line 30: “warm, beating, frantic, winged; music” ominous or negative intent, i.e., a villain's lair.
• Line 31: “young – and”
Aglow (Line 28) - Glowing, especially with warmth or
• Line 33: “corpse, that”
excitement.
• Line 34: “trees, that”
• Line 35: “moon, year in, year” Frantic (Line 30) - Physically, marked by fast, frenzied, or
• Line 36: “season, same rhyme, same reason. I” disordered motions. Likewise, can also mean feeling
• Line 37: “wept. I” emotionally disordered or out of control.
• Line 38: “leapt. I”
• Line 39: “slept, one chop, scrotum,” “throat, and”
• Line 40: “glistening, virgin” FORM, METER, & RHYME
• Line 41: “stones. I”
• Line 42: “flowers, singing, all” FORM
"Little Red Cap" is not written in a traditional form, such as a
sonnet or a villanelle
villanelle, and does not have a regular meter or
VOCABULARY rh
rhyme
yme scheme
scheme. Instead, it is written in free vverse
erse, which was the
poetic norm by the late 20th century, when Carol Ann Duffy
Petered out (Line 1) - Decreased or faded gradually before was writing this poem. It could be considered a dr dramatic
amatic
coming to an end. To say "the houses petered out" means that monologue
monologue, in that it does consist of a first-person speaker's
at the outskirts of this neighborhood there are fewer and fewer uninterrupted reflections, although the speaker does address
houses, until finally there are none. the reader, which some believe violates the dramatic
Allotments (Line 2) - In British English, an allotment is a plot of monologue's tradition.
land rented by an individual for growing vegetables or flowers. Each of the poem's seven stanzas is exactly six lines long, a
It comes from the verb "to allot," which means to distribute uniformity that stands out mostly because such uniformity is
something in portions or pieces. not present in other aspects of the poem. The other most
Hermit (Line 4) - Someone who retreats from society and lives consistent formal aspect of the "Little Red Cap" is its regular
in solitude, especially for religious reasons. In the poem, this use of enjambment
enjambment, between both lines and stanzas. This
may be the speaker adding a touch of fable or magic to her creates a free-flowing sense of narrative movement, which
description of somebody living by themselves. carries readers through the speaker's story and the poem.
Between stanzas, it also adds weight and significance, drawing
Caravan (Line 4) - British English for a trailer or mobile home. extra attention to key moments in the speaker's coming-of-age
This suggests the hermit, or person living in solitude, is living experience. (We discuss this more in the Poetic Devices section
out of a mobile home. of this guide.)
Sweet sixteen, never been (Line 12) - "Sweet sixteen" is a
coming of age party celebrating a teenager's 16th birthday. It is METER
most commonly celebrated by girls, and has become a cliched "Little Red Cap," is written in free vverse
erse, which does not have
way of referring to this particular time of a girl's life. "Never meter
meter, and is typical of late 20th century poetry, when Duffy
been" is the beginning of another teenage cliché
cliché, "never been was writing. Interestingly, the first line, "At childhood's end, the
kissed."Taken together, this phrase evokes all the stereotypes houses petered out," is written in iambic pentameter
pentameter, a
and expectations of teenage girlhood, particularly those related traditional form of poetic meter that dates back to the era of
to coming-of-age and gaining sexual experience. John Donne and William Shakespeare. Iambic pentameter
Babe (Line 12) - A shortened form of the word "baby," or slang means there are five iambs—poetic feet with an

unstressed-stressed
stressed, or da DUM, rhythm—per line:
SPEAKER
At child
child- | hood's end
end, | the hou
hou- | ses pet
pet- | ered out
The speaker of the poem is Little Red Cap, as suggested by the
title. Throughout the poem, she uses the first-person
From there on out, however, the poem resists any regular
perspective, recounting her journey from childhood to
meter, as if to prove even within the meter of the poem itself
adulthood. Her relationship with the wolf, and the fact that her
that adulthood is more complex, and less predictable, than
journey echoes that of the fairy tale heroine, all suggest that
childhood.
readers are meant to understand this speaker as a version of
RHYME SCHEME Little Red Cap herself.
The poem does not have a regular rhyme scheme. Throughout More specifically, within the context of this poem, Little Red
"Little Red Cap," however, Duffy does often use a great deal of Cap is a teenage girl. The speaker describes herself as "sweet
assonance and internal rh
rhyme
yme to create an overall childish sixteen, never been, babe, waif" and tells readers that the drink
effect that emphasizes the poem's focus on the end of the wolf buys her is her first. She is still wearing a school blazer
childhood, and echoes its fairy tale source material. when she follows the wolf into the woods, and later refers to
herself as a "little girl" when she is with the wolf. Many
The early stanzas in particular are full of examples: for instance,
moments in the poem, including the metaphor "lesson one ...
note the sing-song rhyme created by "drawl," "paw," and "jaw" in
the love poem" implicitly refer to sex, affirming that the speaker
lines 8-9:
is still young enough that this is her first sexual experience.
in his wolfy dr
draawl
wl, a paperback in his hairy pa
paww, Throughout the poem, the speaker's main goals are to explore
red wine staining his bearded jajaw
w. her sexual curiosity and artistic ambition. She plays an active
role in her relationship with the wolf, and is the first to spot him
There's also "sweet sixteen, never been" in line 12 and "got and approach him. She is clearly curious about sex, and drawn
there, wolf's lair, better beware" in stanza 4.This irregular but to the wolf's maturity. But more than just a teenage girl
persistent rhyme shows how the speaker is still evolving out of interested in sex and love, the speaker is also a poet. She cites
childish language and patterns even as she takes determined her interest in poetry as her main motivation for pursuing the
steps toward adulthood and maturity. wolf, who is himself a poet, though he turns out to be a failure
as a literary mentor.
Tellingly, in stanza 5, as the speaker matures, the poem begins
to use less internal rhyme. When the wolf gobbles up the Nevertheless, as the poem progresses, the speaker grows more
speaker's poem, however, belittling her artistic ambitions, she and more infatuated with the written word. Stanza 5 captures
resorts again to her old internal rhyme habit: "One bite, dead
dead. her determination to master poetry despite the wolf's
How nice, breakfast in bedbed, he said
said." The rhyme here also indifference, and contains the poem's most ecstatic moment
creates a sense of flippancy, reflecting the casual disregard ("Words, words were truly alive on the tongue ... music and
with which the wolf devours the speaker's bird (which can be blood"), as the speaker discovers her poetic voice for the first
understood as a symbol for her poetry; more on that in the time. Poetry proves the means by which the speaker frees
Symbols section of this guide). herself from both the woods and the wolf, further emphasizing
its key role in the speaker's development.
In the final stanza of the poem, however, Duffy uses a regular
internal rhyme scheme for several lines: In stanza 6 ("But then I was young ..."), the speaker explicitly
describes the many ways she's grown up over a decade spent
to a willow to see how it weptwept. I took an axe to a with the wolf. One of those ways includes her development into
salmon a mature artist. The natural imagery and metaphorical language
to see how it leapt
leapt. I took an axe to the wolf in the sixth stanza is rich and nuanced, implicitly evoking the
as he slept
slept. ... speaker's maturation even as she describes it for us. This
stanza also contains the line, "But then I was young." Coupled
Just as the poem is newly in control of its rhyme scheme, the with the poem's use of the past tense in its early stanzas, this
speaker is newly in control of her situation. The effect is line makes clear that the speaker is looking back on the events
empowering, capturing the speaker's assertion of her of the poem as she recounts them for us in the present-day.
independence and agency, and her desire to wield violence This self-reflective lens allows for the speaker to
rather than receive it. simultaneously capture her genuine sexual curiosity and
excitement as a young girl, even as she now sees (and conveys)
the wolf's predatory role in their relationship in a new, more
damning light than she did back then.

By the end of the poem, the speaker has achieved what she set Duffy returns often to the form of the dramatic monologue
monologue, as
out to do. At first the victim of violence, subject to the wolf's is the case for "Little Red Cap." She is known for her ability to
desires, the speaker takes charge at the poem's conclusion, slip into just about anybody's perspective with empathy and
performing acts of violence against the woods and ultimately nuance, and for giving voice to people on the margins of society.
murdering the wolf. No longer a little girl wowed by the wolf's She's also well-known for her love poems, and cites Pablo
life experience and literary expertise, the speaker has obtained Neruda as one of her formative influences. As she once said in
life experience and poetic expertise of her own, and is ready to the British newspaper The Guar
Guardian
dian, "I'm not interested, as a
assert full agency over her future. As she exits the woods, poet, in words like 'plash'—Seamus Heaney words, interesting
empowered by her poetic talent, the speaker notes that she is words. I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way." Her
now "all alone," a full-fledged, independent adult. everyday language, humor, and wit make her work highly
accessible for modern-day audiences, and are among the
reasons it is so frequently taught in schools.
SETTING "Little Red Cap" and The World's Wife as a whole can also be
"Little Red Cap" begins at "childhood's end," a space that the understood within the literary context of feminist revision.
speaker metaphorically likens to the edge of a neighborhood. Perhaps best articulated by poet Adrienne Rich in her essay
Certain details in this stanza hint that this neighborhood is "When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision," this school of
based on industrial Midlands England, where Duffy herself thought argues for the necessity of fresh female perspectives
grew up. There are playing fields, a factory, and a "silent railway on society's oldest texts and most familiar stories in order to
line," suggesting that this area has seen better days. That is finally give voice to women's lived experiences, as well as help
indeed true of the Midlands during the era when Duffy was women situate themselves within literary history. Fairy tales, as
growing up and industrialization was slowing down. Once the some of the oldest and most malleable cultural stories, have
teeming site of the Industrial Revolution, heavy industry began been a popular subject of feminist re-vision. For instance,
to decline in the 1970s and 1980s. Angela Carter's groundbreaking collection of short stories,The
Bloody Chamber , is made up entirely of feminist takes on fairy
Beyond this depiction of "childhood's end" as a typical Midlands
tales, and contains three different versions of "Little Red Riding
neighborhood, however, the poem largely takes place in the
Hood." In this light, Duffy's work, particularly the poems in The
metaphorical space of "the woods," which comes to represent
World's Wife, can be seen as building on and contributing to a
adulthood in all its teeming complexities. The poem does take
new feminist literary canon.
care to note a clear boundary between "childhood's end" and
what lies ahead, by first describing the long journey away from In 2009, Duffy was appointed the United Kingdom's Poet
the neighborhood of childhood, and then firmly establishing Laureate—the first woman and first openly LGBTQ poet to hold
there is an "edge" of the woods the speaker must cross in order the position. She stepped down from the role in 2019.
to enter.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Other settings in the poem include the wolf's lair, which the
The poem takes place in a broadly contemporary time period:
speaker reaches after a difficult journey that symbolizes her
the wolf buys the speaker a drink, she wears a modern-day
loss of innocence; and the library at the back of the wolf's lair,
school blazer, there are factories and playing fields in her
where the speaker gains access to the magical world of books
hometown. These are passing details, however, and for the
and poetry.
most part time (outside of the speaker's own aging process) is
irrelevant to the poem's concerns. As an allusion to a familiar
CONTEXT fairy tale, the poem can almost be said to take place out of time
altogether, in the mythological, fabled time when fairy tales
LITERARY CONTEXT occur.
“Little Red Cap” appears in Carol Ann Duffy's fifth collection of Of course, fairy tales themselves are very much influenced by
poems, The World's Wife. Considered a feminist poet, Duffy their historical contexts. They were originally oral stories,
often focuses on themes of gender and power in her work, before being written down by famous collectors such as
exploring topics related to women and their lives that have long Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm in the 18th and 19th
flown under the radar. This is certainly the case forThe World's centuries. This was the era of Romanticism, a cultural
Wife. The poems in this collection focus on famous female movement that emphasized nature, free expression, and
figures from history, mythology, the Bible, and other popular spontaneous emotion, in contrast to the scientific, intellectual
cultural texts, or on fictional female counterparts to famous age of Enlightenment that came before. The Grimms in
male figures. particular situated their collection of fairy tales within the
Romantic movement, claiming that each story was an unedited

cultural artifact, a preservation of Germany's oral folkloric • Duffy's Biogr
Biograph
aphyy and More P
Poems
oems — A valuable resource
tradition, transcribed word-for-word from rural storytellers. from the Poetry Foundation on Duffy's life and work.
Up until the 1970s, the idea that fairy tales were received oral (https:/
(https://www
/www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carol-ann-
.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carol-ann-
duffy)
tradition was the norm. However, scholars now believe that the
Grimms heavily edited their stories in order to fit the romantic • Re
Review
view of "The WWorld's
orld's Wife
Wife"" — A review of "The World's
style and mood of their time. (Indeed, you can track the changes Wife," the collection to which "Little Red Cap" belongs, by
in language and content from the first 1812 edition to the Jeannette Winterson. (https:/
(https://www
/www.theguardian.com/
.theguardian.com/
seventeenth edition in 1864.) This discovery that fairy tales books/2015/jan/17/jeanette-winterson-on-carol-ann-
and folklore were "standardized" by men like the Grimms duffys-the-worlds-wife
duffys-the-worlds-wife))
coincided with the arrival of the feminist movement, both
• Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — An interview with the
culturally and literarily. For years, women had taken issue with
poet, towards the end of her term as UK Poet Laureate.
the moralistic tone of many fairy tales, including Little Red (https:/
(https://www
/www.scottishre
.scottishreviewofbooks.org/2018/11/the-
viewofbooks.org/2018/11/the-
Riding Hood, which often prescribe sexist rules and roles for srb-interview-carol-ann-duffy
srb-interview-carol-ann-duffy/)
/)
girls and women to follow.
Learning now that those morals were not "authentic" to these LITCHARTS ON OTHER CAROL ANN DUFFY
stories, and that a richer female history of storytelling had been POEMS
papered over, fairy tales became a popular source for feminist • Education FFor
or LLeisure
eisure
writers, including Anne Carson, Sylvia Plath, Angela Carter, • In Mrs Tilscher’s Class
Margaret Atwood, Jeannette Winterson, and, of course, Carol • Valentine
Ann Duffy. Their work is often twofold: excavating the female • Warming Her P Pearls
earls
voices of authentic folkloric traditions, and upending the • War Photogr
Photographer
apher
misogynistic morals and stereotypes enforced by the "classic"
fairy tales collected and written down by men by re-writing
those same stories from a contemporary feminist perspective. HOW T
TO
O CITE
MLA
MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES Malordy, Jessica. "Little Red Cap." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 28 Oct
2019. Web. 22 Apr 2020.
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
• The P
Poem
oem Out LLoud
oud — A video of "Little Red Cap" being CHICAGO MANUAL
read out loud. (https:/
(https://www
/www..youtube.com/ Malordy, Jessica. "Little Red Cap." LitCharts LLC, October 28,
watch?v=xPpEqhK4Y24) 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/
• The Original Fairy T Tale
ale — The 1812 fairy tale "Little Red poetry/carol-ann-duffy/little-red-cap.
Cap," as set down by the Brothers Grimm.
(https:/
(https://www
/www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html)
.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html)

Little Red Cap: Sexual Awakening and Coming of AGE

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Little Red Cap

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This section is characterized by enjambment and asyndeton

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WHITE AND RED

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• Lines 2-3: “allotments / kept” • Line 1: “At childhood’s end,”

Where Extended Metaphor appears in the poem:

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