Little Beast

The all-night barbecue is in the first sentence of the poem and then never comes up again. Although the barbecue appears only once, it is a potent symbol. The barbecue relates to the title of the poem, “Little Beast.” A beast is an animal, and, at barbecues, people tend to eat animals. The barbecue symbolizes the bestial foundation of the poem. The couple is as wild and killable as an animal. Like the animals, the couple is vulnerable to becoming dead flesh. The speaker also mentions “stains” (Line 6), which invoke perhaps barbeque sauce or condiments getting on clothing. These stains, however, appear in the last line of the stanza. Their placement suggests that both the couple, death, violence, the barbeque, and kisses are all defined as stains on the night.

The barbecue symbology also carries over into Stanza 2. The buck knife alludes to hunting, killing, and potentially eating animals. In Stanza 5, the speaker uses a simile to solidify his and his partner’s connection to beasts. “Everyone could see the way his muscles worked, / the way we look like animals,” states the speaker (Lines 26-27). The couple’s primal, reckless nature makes the entire poem feel like a barbecue—only it’s the men who are in danger of consumption.