Greed — Summary

I imagine you as a fat baker, Glistening with sweat and sugar. A hungry glint in your eye, That smug smile, oozy and vulgar. To everyone else you are devilishly handsome, And I can't deny, I have to agree. That is until you remind me why you make me sick, The side of you no-one else can seem to see. You hold me like your favourite cake, Peeling away my precious paper, To nibble, to bite, to lick. The best you've ever had, you say. Hah! Hah! Didn't your mother ever tell you, Not to have more than one dessert? Greedy, selfish, ugly man, Not caring what you've done or who you've hurt. When you've finished your indulgence, And all the wrappers thrown away, You'll sneak away from the kitchen cupboard, Just to sweeten me another day.

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Greed is told through one long dessert metaphor. The speaker pictures a man as a fat, sweaty baker, charming to everyone else but sickening to her once she sees what he's really like. The poem suggests she can admit his good looks, which makes her disgust feel more complicated and more personal.

The cake imagery turns uncomfortable fast. Being held "like your favourite cake" and unwrapped, nibbled and licked, suggests she is something to be consumed rather than cared about. His line that she's "the best you've ever had" sounds like flattery, but the speaker's mocking "Hah! Hah!" shows she isn't fooled. She scolds him like a child who has taken too many sweets.

The mood moves from bitter and sarcastic to quietly sad. In the last lines he sneaks back to "the kitchen cupboard" to sweeten her again, which hints that the pattern repeats, and that she may still be caught in it.

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