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CONTEXTUALIZE. - Written by Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy. - It is the first poem in her 1999 anthology The World's Wife, which subverts myths and ...
Typology: Exercises
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OVERVIEW
NARRATION
STRUCTURE
THEMES
TONE AND MOOD Childish tone and at times angry.
MIPs. in this commentary I will be returning to three main ideas:
LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS Little Red Cap
At childhood’s end, the houses petered out into playing fields, the factory, allotments kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men, the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan, till you came at last to the edge of the woods. It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf.
- Extended metaphor: portraying childhood as a physical place which the female persona can leave. As the female persona strays further away from childhood the setting becomes increasingly isolated. She begins walking away from “houses”, which symbolize the safety and security of childhood, towards places like “factories” and “hermit’s caravan” which indicate isolation and uncertainty.
He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw, red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth! In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me, sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink,
- Diction: the use of the word ‘he’ as a way to describe ‘the wolf’ is allegorical in nature as it allows Duffy to show that this poem is a commentary on the universal struggle of women and not only her struggle with Adrian Henri. She furthermore highlights that the ‘wolf’ is a poet (e.g. “reading his verse out loud” and “a paperback”), which allows her to link the story of this female persona with her own experiences with Adrian Henri - Extended metaphor: the extended metaphor of the wolf as the main antagonist in this poem is further emphasized by the ways in which the speaker describes him with animalistic qualities, such as a “wolfy drawl” and “hairy paw”. These descriptions allow Duffy to illustrate the predatory nature of the male in this relationship from the beginning of the poem
- Rhetorical question: the use of a rhetorical question illustrates how the female persona may have some doubt of the power dynamic in her relationship as she matures, which illustrates the beginning of her transformation to an active protagonist
which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth. One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said, licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books. Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head, warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.
- Symbolism: the “white dove” in this part of the poem symbolizes artistic expression which the female persona looks for. However, this hope is consumed by the wolf, illustrating how the power dynamic not only exists sexually but also in an artistic sphere. - Colour imagery: the use of the colours crimson and gold and the way the “glow” illustrate the excitement which the speaker derives from poetry and the fact that the real reward of her relationship with the wolf is the ability to explore poetry and her own poetic voice - Personification: the personification of words as “beating” and “winged” link back to the bird symbolism in the text and shows how the female persona sees poetry as an element of hope in her relationship with the wolf
But then I was young – and it took ten years in the woods to tell that a mushroom stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out, season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe
to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones. I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up. Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone.
- Internal rhyme: the rapid internal rhyme in the words “wept”, “leapt” and “slept” illustrate the speaker’s growing impatience with the wolf - Anaphora: the repetition of “I took an axe” is utilized by Duffy to build up to the deed of the speaker and also shows how the speaker becomes very prepared to kill the wolf in a very short amount of time in comparison to the long time she spent questioning her relationship with the wolf in the earlier parts of the poem - Intertextual reference: the reference to “grandmother’s bones” alludes to the original fairy tale, in which Little Red Cap's grandmother gets eaten first by the wolf. The poem subverts this aspect of the fairytale by implying that the speaker and wolf's relationship can be understood as part of a larger history of men exploiting and silencing women. The line suggests that not only has the speaker exerted her own independence, she has also struck a blow at generations of male power over both the sexual and poetic spheres. - Personal pronouns: the repeated use of the pronoun “I” in this last stanza illustrates the power which the speaker has gained as the focus of the poem turns to her and her actions to silence the wolf. - Intertextual reference: the last two lines of the poem are again an intertextual reference to the original fairytale where little red cap fills the wolf’s belly with stones so that he remains a memory of her past. As she leaves the forest alone we understand as readers that her poetic license has finally “bloomed” into fruition and she has now gained independence over men.