The poem is drawn from the fairy tail “little red riding hood” there for the reader brings to this poem preconceptions about childhood innocence and the dangers of ‘straying from the path’ It also draws upon her own life’s experiences of with an older man – a poet – and her own attempts of braking out as a serious writer.
Symbolism Little red cap. – love, danger, lust, passion, blood Red wine staining his bearded jaw – Danger, Scraps of red from my blazer – childhood has gone White dove – Innocence, peace, love, Was crimson and gold. – treasure – precious, richness A greying wolf – old, ageing, Virgin white of my grandmother. –feministic metaphor for womankind being in hardship.
Verse 1 analysis The poem begins with a metaphorical journey through life. Playing fields – representing childhood Factories – work life Allotments – retirement
Through this pathway of life there are options. ‘The silent railway line’ represents escape. ‘The hermit’s cavern’ represents religion, finds fulfilment in god. ‘Kneeling married men’ they ‘kneel’ they have torn the line of marriage and keep allotments. – a life of dull order.
The Title “Little red cap” suggests the familiar fairy tale of ‘little red riding hood’ We would expect the young girl to encounter a “wolf” and to be eaten by him and then to be rescued by a wood cutter. But – she rescues herself.
The role of men.
“The wolf” - is a writer CAD met in her youth and she portrays him as a the wolf in the LRRH story. The wolf is a writer; “Reading his verse out loud” She was making a point a male dominated literary world. The images of the man being a wolf are developed through a number of expressions: “in his wolf drawl” “his hairy paw” “red wine staining his bearded jaw.” The assonance draws attention his wolf like features. CAD is here showing the passion of the poet, the word “Staining” suggesting the idea of a flaw. – He’s dangerous and not to be trusted. To CAD “the wolf” is larger than life. “What big ears you have!” the repetition of the word ‘what’ draws attention to his physical attractiveness. “what ears...what eyes... what teeth” However it’s the girl who makes the move on “the wolf” “in the interval I made quite sure he spotted me sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif...” Connotations of innocence: Sixteen never been Babe waif Her strategy is successful, he buys her a drink. “My first. You might ask why. Poetry.”
Has the effect of The one word drawing the reader sentence draws to the question why attention to her CAD gave herself motivation to this man. She compares the process of seduction to a journey: “I knew would lead me deep into the woods” “The woods” carry connotations of danger, confusion and perhaps adventure. “Away from home” – she wants to be taken away from normal familiar places - into the unknown and mysterious world of literature and poetry.
THE SETTING “ a dark tangled thorny place lit by the eyes of owls” -The poet knows that she is going into a dangerous and confusing place. (Like the dark woods of fairy tales) but it’s worth it for the knowledge she hopes to get. (lit by the eyes of owls) “owls” represents knowledge and literature.
-The loss of the poets childhood is expressed or confirmed in the image of a child being abducted or murder “Stockings ripped to shreds” “Scraps of red from my blazer” “Murder clues, I lost both shoes.”
-When she arrives at the wolfs lair she further loses her virginity “I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur” “White dove – which flew, straight from my hand into his open mouth?”
-She sacrifices innocence for the experience of literature. (Poetry) Why does she allow this to happen to her? “What little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf? She is willing to let go of being “a little girl” because she thinks that the experience of being with a poet is worth the sacrifice.
-What the poet finds in the lair is books “A whole wall was crimson, gold, and aglow with books. This is the imagery of treasure “Crimson” “Gold” “aglow” What she also finds is life (and meaning) “words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head, warm beating, frantic winged” This lasts for 10 years, then she becomes disillusioned, and like LRRH she realises that it’s not grandmother, LRC realises that “The Wolf” should be disposed of. (One of a series of moments when the woman takes control over the man)
-LRC’s moment of realisation she sees below the ‘magic’ “A greying wolf howls the same old song at the moon.”
-He’s old and has nothing new to give to her, or show to her “Season after season, same rhyme same reason”
-She has now reached the time when she no longer requires the wolf. “Without rhyme or reason”
-She can now understand poetry and analyse it for herself. “I took an axe to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon to see how it leapt” The metaphor here is I can analyse poetry/ literature for my self - don’t need him. “I took an axe to the wolf, as he sleeps, one chop, scrotum to throat” This is the point where she rescues herself from his clutches’ no longer needing him for sex. “Scrotum” or for his poetry “Throat”
-what she sees is: “The glistening virgin white of my grandmothers bones” Symbolic of freeing herself, life is now “glistening” and “virgin white” – all fitting in with the fairy tale notation of the heroic rescue.
-The poet cynically says of the wolf “I stitched him up” Now having the upper hand or victory over the wolf she says “Out of the forest I come with my flowers singing all alone.”
At her own ability to create literature Independen t