Poetry Break

And today for your reading pleasure, a gem often mislooked on the SurLaLune main site. Oh, there are so many treasures to be found there, many I've forgotten myself in ten years. (And there's many more I never have enough time to add either....)


The Coup de Grace
by Edward Rowland Sill
(1841–87)


Just at that moment the Wolf,
Shag jaws and slavering grin,
Steps from the property wood.
O, what a gorge, what a gulf
Opens to gobble her in,
Little Red Riding Hood!

O, what a face full of fangs!
Eyes like saucers at least
Roll to seduce and beguile.
Miss, with her dimples and bangs,
Thinks him a handsome beast;
Flashes the Riding Hood Smile;

Stands her ground like a queen,
Velvet red of the rose
Framing each little milk-tooth,
Pink tongue peeping between.
Then, wider than anyone knows,
Opens her minikin mouth,

Swallows up Wolf in a trice;
Tail going down gives a flick,
Caught as she closes her jaws.
Bows, all sugar and spice.
O, what a lady-like trick!
O, what a round of applause!

from An American Anthology, 1787–1900 (1900).