The Sunday Poems

   

In honor of National Poetry Month, we've got not one but six poems for you today -- all inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale.

1. First we have a classic: Anne Sexton's "Red Riding Hood" (from her famous fairy tale poetry collection, Transformations):

Long ago
there was a strange deception:
a wolf dressed in frills,
a kind of transvestite.
But I get ahead of my story.....

2. The wolf defends himself in Agha Shahid Ali's "The Wolf''s Postscript to 'Little Red Riding Hood'" (from A Walk Through the Yellow Pages and The Poets' Grimm):

First, grant me my sense of history:
I did it for posterity,
for kindergarten teachers
and a clear moral....

3. Angela Omulepu uses Red Riding Hood imagery to powerful effect in her short poem "Self-Portrait" (which was part of the Poetry on the Buses program in Washington State):

I'm no Red Riding Hood, lost in the woods,
More gap-toothed and leaping, evergreen
To evergreen, more hermit than hobbit....

4. Jeannine Hall Gailey gives us a different take on Red Riding Hood's character in "When Red Becomes the Wolf" (from her terrific collection Becoming the Villainess):

In the forest by your house,

I met someone gathering wood. "Nice axe,"
I said before wandering further.
I was obtaining samples for my botany class....

5. The heroine of Carol Ann Duffy's "Little Red-Cap" (from her brilliant collection The World's Wife) deliberately seeks the wolf's attention:

You might ask why. Here's why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls....

6. Sonia Murphy, too, explores the allure of the wild in her poem "Marrying the Wolf" (scroll down to the March 31 entry on Murphy's blog, Igneous Paramour):

my sugar bowl of eggs
for his lacy underbelly
of wet fur.

my wooden spoons
for his thick honest
mud-thorn kisses....

More Red Riding Hood poems can be found in the Journal of Mythic Arts archives. Follow these links to delightful pieces by Holly Black, Johnny Clewell, Karen Daly, Theodora Goss, Carrie Miner, and Jane Yolen; and a Sunday Poem feature on Jennifer Chang.

Lawrence Schimel's fabulous poem "Journeybread Recipe" inspired the e-postcard above, with art by Walter Crane. You'll find this and many other free e-postcards over on our Mythic Poetry e-Postcard page.

The art below below is a Red Riding Hood narrative sculpture by midwestern artist John T. Unger, working in collaboration with his daughter Mya Smith. Go here to learn more about the piece, and about Unger's work.

   

For more about the fairy tale itself: here's my article on the history of Little Red Riding Hood; you'll find an annotated version of the story over on Surlalune; and I recommend Catherine Orenstein's entertaining book Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale.

Comments

[Lana Hechtman Ayers]

Terri,

Excellent article. A great resource for the book-length Red Riding Hood poetry manuscript I am working on.

Also, I really enjoy the journal, especially today's featured pieces.

Best,
Lana

[Dante's Heart]

This is wonderful! Thanks, Terri. The poems are beautiful and the article also. We're preparing for a special issue on wolf folklore and fairy tales at Dante's Heart, and this resource you've offered is very inspiring.

John Unger's sculpture is chilling. It doesn't look like the woodman is going to win, for the wolf appears with such ferocity, and the man with his hatchet looks more afraid than wrathful.

[Terri Windling]

Lana: Please let us know when your book is available -- it sounds terrific! (I loved your collection Dance From Inside My Bones.)

Daniel: I look forward to the wolf issue! Have you looked at Kiki Smith's wolf & Red Riding Hood imagery?