At childhood’s end, the houses petered out
Into playing fields, the factory, allotments
From the poem's opening lines, Duffy lets readers know that this work occupies a space between the fairytale setting of the familiar "Little Red Cap" tale and a modern, urban setting. This opening setting helps us to understand that the poem is an allegory, using the language of fairytale to talk about a contemporary situation. At the same time, these lines are themselves a metaphorical description of adolescence, in which the domestic safety of childhood gives way to a more intimidating and isolating period.
You might ask why. Here's why. Poetry
These phrases briefly remove us from immersion in the story, taking us to a future situation in which the older, wiser speaker acknowledges the seeming senselessness of her childhood self's decisions. However, the answer—"poetry"—urges us not to look on the speaker with condescension. Because we are reading this story in the format of a poem, we understand that the speaker has not lost her interest in poetry. While she may regret following the wolf, her motive, a love of poetry, remains a strong and legitimate force in her life.
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
The words "scrotum to throat" offer insight into the speaker's mindset and into what she accomplishes by killing the wolf. By so utterly destroying his body, the speaker displays both her anger towards the wolf and her own strength and competence. The two body parts mentioned are symbolic of the wolf's primary sources of power—his sexuality and his poetic voice. The speaker is disillusioned with both of these sources of power and is able to demolish them. Finally, while her violence may seem extreme, it is only by cutting the wolf nearly in half that she is able to rediscover her grandmother's bones and bear witness to the wolf's past brutality.
