Ten of the best

Teeth in literature
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Chattering Teeth
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"Hysteria" by TS Eliot In Eliot's bizarre prose poem, the speaker gazes in rapt horror into a woman's mouth. She laughs and he feels sucked in, "until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery".


White Teeth by Zadie Smith Teeth provide the ruling metaphor in Smith's novel, which talks of the "root canals" of its leading characters when it is taking us into the past that has formed each of them. Some, like Samad, are unable to see that "the first sign of tooth decay is something rotten, something degenerate, deep within the gums".

"The Wife of Bath's Prologue" by Geoffrey Chaucer At the funeral for her fourth husband, the Wife of Bath spots sexy 20-year-old Jankyn. "And I was forty, if I tell the truth; / But then I always had a young colt's tooth. / Gap-toothed I was, and that became me well; / I had the print of holy Venus' seal." A gap in your front teeth was supposed to be a sure sign of high libido.

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett Précis can hardly do justice to the power of teeth in Discworld. The Tooth Fairy takes children's teeth to her own land. The assassin Mr Teatime takes these millions of teeth and uses them to control children's minds. But brave Susan, Death's granddaughter, sweeps the teeth away and saves the world.

"Address to the Toothache" by Robert Burns You know how the poet feels. "My curse upon your venom'd stang, / That shoots my tortur'd gums alang; / And thro' my lugs gies mony a twang, / Wi' gnawing vengeance". Think of teeth before analgesics or dental expertise. "Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang, / Like racking engines!" Burns ends by wishing toothache on all Scotland's enemies.

"Goody Blake and Harry Gill" by William Wordsworth "Evermore his teeth they chatter, / Chatter, chatter, chatter still". Wordsworth's verse tale concerns a man who has stopped a poor old woman from collecting firewood from his hedge and is now cursed to be cold forever. "At night, at morning, and at noon, / 'Tis all the same with Harry Gill; / Beneath the sun, beneath the moon, / His teeth they chatter, chatter still".

King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard Dauntless British explorers led by Allan Quartermain travel into the heart of Africa in search of the fabled mines. They are eventually confronted by a party of fearsome Kukuana, but Captain John Good RN "put his hand to his false teeth, dragging the top set down and allowing them to fly back to his jaw with a snap". The Kukuanas are terrified. Good then takes out his teeth, convincing the natives that he is a god.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Anse cares more about the forthcoming purchase of new false teeth than anything else. When his wife Addie dies, he is determined to get her body to her hometown of Jefferson so that he can also get those teeth. He succeeds, and manages to find a new wife, too.

Metamorphoses by Ovid Jason has been given a bronze helmet full of dragon's teeth by Aeëtes, who tells him that he can have the Golden Fleece if he sows them. After taming the fire-breathing bulls and using them to plough the earth, he scatters these teeth over the newly tilled soil. Each tooth rises up as a fierce warrior, but Jason defeats them with the aid of the infatuated sorceress Medea.

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