Little Red Riding Hood Poetry

Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale that everyone knows and assumes to understand. The classic moral is usually accepted as "don't wander off the path or talk to strangers!" But the tale has come to mean much more than that since it started out as a dirty story told to amuse adults. Red Riding Hood has taken on unlimited new roles and meanings as time has changed. That is why fairy tales remain so important to us. They are "devoted to the mundane: the drama of domestic life, of children and courtship and coming of age" (Orenstein 8). While our own domestic lives change because of cultural uphevals and sexual revolutions, our fairy tales must also change. If fairy tales are used as a moral compass for youth and adults and entertainment alike, they must be readily available for adaptation by authors, poets, children and philosophers to suit their changing needs. The poems presented here are interpretations of the well known tale of Little Red Riding Hood. They explore her challenges and limitations of being a fairy tale as well as the fate of other characters, who have been changed (for better or worse) because of cultural expectations.

"A Woodcutter's Poem"

This is the first of the three poems. It is reminiscent of a nursery rhyme and signifies the role that fairy tales have adapted for children's uses. Most fairy tales were once oral stories that bawdy peasants would tell to amuse themselves after the children had been put to bed. Later, the stories developed morals and were used to tell the children what they can and cannot do in their society. Fairy tales present the rewards and punishment of certain behaviours. All children know more than they let their parents see, of course, and, especially when exposed to public school, develop new meanings for their old childhood rhymes. "The Woodcutter's Poem" signifies the adaptation in fairy tales that even children are aware of as they mature. The poem is "performed by a twelve-year-old on the schoolyard at recess," probably to several of his or her friends. The influences of this poem are the many warped Christmas carols one hears in elementary school: "Jingle bells, / Batman smells, /Robin laid an egg, /Batmobile has lost a wheel /and Joker got away". Applying that theory to Red Riding Hood results in "A Woodcutter's Poem".

The rhyme scheme is a simple a-a-b-b-a to reinforce the nursery rhyme feel. The grammar is not particularly perfect, ("She met a sly wolf-man, with whom she did talk") which is another sign that it has been tampered with by the hands of a twelve-year-old. The poem is named "A Woodcutter's Poem" because it seems as though it would have its "adult" roots in lewd, male jokes. Perhaps it is something a child picked up from his parents when he should have been sleeping and has since passed it about the schoolyard. It showcases the multiple versions of Red Riding Hood from a children's guide to behaviour to adult jokes and children finding their own meaning from the tales they learn as children. This particular version of Little Red suggests that the wolf is a man, but still a beast of sorts. He "seemed to her merry" is taken from the Grimm brothers. The wolf in that story seduces Red off the path by showing her how "everything else out here in the wood is merry" (140). How one interprets the tale of Little Red Riding Hood is severely important, but often one sees it as overly simple. This poem could be mere child's play, but it can also represent more. Orenstein states: "they determine how we will perceive our mates, our children and ourselves—all years in advance. In the journey through the fairy-tale forest, princes and princesses (and boys and girls) learn the social and psychological lessons that must be absorbed to reach adulthood. We think we outgrow them. In fact, we internalize them" (11).

"Fur Coat"

This is a more complex poem. The style used is called a Pantoum and follows a complex line pattern. The second and third lines of the first quatrain become the first and third lines of the next quatrain. It is repeated like this until the very end when the unrepeated first and third lines of the poem are used again in the last quatrain: this results in the first line of the poem also being the last. I chose this style because, not only does the complex form match the complex content of Little Red Riding Hood, but it also has a slow pace and constant repetition of certain lines. This results in a lengthy poem as well as a lot of room to explore the action in regards to its meaning. The poem is supposed to capture the idea of Little Red Riding Hood as ever changing yet always the same. She and the other characters are always associated together. You cannot have Red without the wolf, or her story is meaningless. Red is being portrayed here as a heroine, a victim, a conqueror, a femme, a femme-fatale, attractive and independent. She is all of these things because that is what allows her to remain popular as a fairy tale. She must have the ability to adapt to societal changes around her. Little "Red Riding Hood's perennial popularity is due, in part, to her ability to adapt to the times. Every year, reincarnations of the story pop up in print, on television, on billboards and advertisements, in children's games and adult jokes" (Orenstein 6-7).

As many factors of Red's journey into the woods are used in this poem. Many woodsmen who whistle at Red Riding Hood represent the woodcutter's character. She is a desirable icon of virginity and the poem undermines the heroics of the woodcutter. Red can defend herself while knowing she is a desirable figure. Her sexuality is her own to give to whom she likes. She is whistled at because she carries "cakes and wine," a domesticated (yet somewhat tarnished by modern views of alcohol) act. In a world of binaries and opposites, which is what the fairy tale embodies foremost, domestic acts require a masculine touch to keep the domesticity in its place. The burly woodcutters give her a whistle so she knows she is the little girl going to help her Grandma. The line "Wolf whistles at Little Red Cap" is tricky. In the second quatrain, the whistle is from the many woodsmen who occupy the forest. In the third quatrain, however, "Wolf whistles" at Little Red-Cap. Through a play on words, the Wolf brings Red a new meaning. He does not whistle at her cakes and wine, but at Red Riding Hood as a woman. His "blood surges through his veins" in the previous line. This is a come-on from the Wolf of the woods and "Little Red-Cap" (the nickname is a call to her innocence) likes it.

She "takes no fear in what is near" because she has developed over the centuries to become self-sufficient. A popular element that has been added to Riding Hood folklore is replacing her red cloak with the fur of the Wolf. The poem here is titled "Fur-Coat" as a response to the new tradition. Angela Carter uses this metaphor in "The Company of Wolves". It shows that while Red Riding Hood is always changing as a character, she uses what is around her to change. If her red cloak signifies her virginity, taking on the Wolf's fur is separating herself from a naïve child. She is growing by taking what she comes in contact with in her many stories and using it to adapt herself. The Wolf's fur is her own experiences with sexuality, love and self-understanding. By embracing the Wolf, she can now grow to be a more complex character instead of remaining a virginal ideal that imprisons women in the role of useless objects of a male gaze. The use of the first line, "I am the Wolf's heart" brings the poem back to the beginning again. Red cannot exist without the Wolf and while fairy tales are always changing, they always have elements of their roots present, no matter what they wear.

"Burly, Large and in Charge… or so I Thought"

This is a response to the usually ignored or undermined character of the woodcutter. Most feminist theory passes the woodcutter off as a misogynistic wolf killer. After it became widely acceptable for the Wolf to sleep with Red, the woodcutter is put at a disadvantage. He is no longer a heroic figure, but useless when Red can take care of herself. Often he becomes a symbol of backwards thinking or put in the villain's role as an oppressor of women. "In the earliest written version of the tale, the girl strips off her clothes, joins the beast under the covers—and dies. A rhyming moral at the end warns young women to watch out because a man can be a "wolf," popularising the use of that term, still common today, to mean seducer" (Orenstein 4). The woodcutter was not even a character in the original moral. He was later introduced when fairy tales developed more aptitude for morals and children: "In later versions of the story a hunter or woodsman comes to the rescue, imparting the revised moral that a good man—perhaps a father or husband—can save a woman from her folly" (Orenstein 5). The woodcutter's only purpose in the story was to save Red Riding Hood and kill the Wolf because he swallowed Red and her Grandmother. He was the good guy.

Since the feminist movements there has been displacement among the masculine community. What is one to do with all the middle aged men who were reared on a diet of damsels in distress and masculine chivalry? This poem is influenced a lot by my father, who is usually shot down every time he tells my mother or sisters that going outside at night is dangerous. Never mind that he is a father and wants to protect those he loves, and never mind the fact that Halifax has the most crime per capita in Canada now. He is ignored by the now accepted ideals of feminist strength in our house. "Sexism, caution, it's all the same to me" refers to the fact that most men of that age are not exposed to feminist literature classes and therefore cannot make such a quick jump from hero to useless. Even though my father has lived longer than my mother, has more common sense and a better scope of how the world works, he is ignored because she now a strong businesswoman. The role of men is just as jumbled and changing as the role of women (especially lately) and in finding a place for women in Western society is causing upheaval in gender binaries. That is not to say the change is unwelcome, because it is time for there to be a struggle on the masculine side of gender roles. Often in gender classes, which are usually comprised of ninety-eight percent female the displacement of men is overlooked because the emphasis is on women's rights, or lack thereof. The woodcutter is a reduced figure of importance now and his narrative is incredibly interesting to observe. Though men may not need the dominance they have retained for centuries, their discoveries and opinions are not useless. Adding up masculinity to become only a threat to female freedom is pushing limits of equal rights. Creating equal footing for women should not remove men completely, but should adapt what they know into fur lined red cloaks.

Works Cited:

Grimm, Jakob Ludwig Karl. Grimm's Fairy Tales Complete Edition. Pantheon Books

Inc. New York: 1944.

Hasse, Donald, Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches. Wayne State University

Press. Detroit: 2004.

Orenstein, Catherine. Little Red Riding Hood Uncloacked. Basic Books Ltd. New York:

2002.