Thumbsucker
Thumbsucker - meaning Summary
Playful Warning Against Temptation
A humorous cautionary narrative in which the speaker encounters a charming stranger and repeatedly refuses her attempts to suck his thumb, warning that thumbsuckers lead to loss of sense and self-control. The speaker lists comic consequences and infidelity-like behavior, framing the encounter as a small moral panic. The poem ends with an admission of eventual surrender, undercutting the earlier protest and turning the warning into playful irony.
Read Complete AnalysesI met her on a corner in Duluth (That’s the truth.) She was tryin’ to fix her shoe in a telephone booth (Her name was Ruth.) She said she was just waiting for a bus But I hid my thumb cause I knew just what she was, And I ain’t gonna let no thumbsucker such my thumb. It’ll drive you crazy and leave you deaf and dumb. It’ll make you crawl and climb the wall Leave you without no thumb at all. So I ain’t gonna let no thumbsucker suck my thumb. I’ll tell you what them thumbsuckers like to do. They suck your thumb till it’s wrinkled like a prune They’ll say you’ve got the sweetest thumb of all But then they suck the thumb of the guy livin’ down the hall That’s why I ain’t gonna let no thumbsucker suck my thumb (etc. . . etc. . . until finally giving in.)
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