Well known men represented through the
forgotten women in their lives.
Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare’s wife and the
poem focuses on Hathaway reflecting on their
relationship after he has died.
King Midas was a greedy, mythological king who
was granted a wish whereby everything he
touched turned to gold. This poem focuses on
the effect it has on their relationship.
• Read the two poems.
• Highlight use of the following features:
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Word choice showing passion
Use of sentence structure for a particular reason
• What is each poem about?
• What are the main themes of each poem?
• What is the tone of each poem? (Using quotes)
Anne Hathaway
Reflecting on her love for her husband after he has died.
Theme: passion, love, remembrance.
Tone: reflective, sensual.
Shakespeare is famous for writing 154 sonnets; a form of
poetry.
This poem is also written in a sonnet form, with 14 lines,
made up of 3 quatrains (4 lines) and 1 rhyming couplet.
Enjambment - to show how free their love was, as well as
to place emphasis on important words or phrases.
The entire poem is a metaphor comparing the couple’s
love making to the process poetic creativity.
'Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed ...'
(from Shakespeare's will)
First line is taken from Shakespeare’s will.
Although it seems odd, in the poem it says the “best”
bed was for their guests and the “second best” bed was
theirs. After everything we’re shown about their
relationship; this is his last romantic gesture.
Their love/her
happiness made
her dizzy
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
Pearls –
where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words
precious/valuable, were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
Like their love.
Metaphor. She was seduced by
his language/words.
Places
Shakespeare
wrote about.
Magical places of
stories. They’re
cut off in their
own world.
Calling him her
lover
demonstrates
importance of
physical side
of their
relationship.
Shows how
in tune they
are with each
other; they
echo.
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
Extends the
language metaphor.
Compares their
having sex to
something poetic.
It is only through
his eyes and
imagination that
she feels fully alive.
The bed compared to a
blank piece of paper
with what happens up
to his imagination. Bed
represents their
relationship.
Sensory
imagery
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
Longer pieces
of writing
boring in
comparison
to poetry.
Upbeat alliteration
compared to the dull ‘D’
and ‘P’ sound of dozed,
dribbling and prose.
Their
relationship
dull in
comparison.
The dash
separates the
description
from the
reality that he
is dead.
Their love is
now only in her
head; a
memory.
Somewhere to
keep valuables and
protect them. In
the same way that
she felt with her
husband in their
bed.
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
Rhyming
couplet.
Mrs Midas - written from the viewpoint of the wife
of the mythological King Midas.
King Midas was granted a wish by the god Dionysus
whereby everything he touched would turn to gold.
A wide range of emotions is expressed through the
persona of Mrs Midas as she separates herself from
her husband and his selfish actions.
She leaves him and reflects the loss of their physical
relationship and the chance to have a baby with her
husband.
Themes
• Greed – damaging effects on the relationship
and the isolation it causes.
• Consequences of actions – pay the price for
not thinking the wish through.
Relationships.
Form and structure.
• Form: dramatic monologue
• 11 stanzas
• Irregular line length reflecting the chaos of the
situation.
• Stanza 1 -6 deals with discovering Midas’ power
and the panic it causes.
• Stanzas 7 -11 deal with the implications on their
relationship/future.
• Last line – regret at loss of physical contact.
Typical domestic scene.
Personification.
It was late September. I'd just poured a glass of wine, begun
to unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchen
filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath
gently blanching the windows. So I opened one,
then with my fingers wiped the other's glass like a brow.
He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig.
Puts it down to not being
able to see properly.
Now the garden was long and the visibility poor, the way
the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky,
but that twig in his hand was gold. And then he plucked
a pear from a branch - we grew Fondante d'Automne and it sat in his palm like a light bulb. On.
I thought to myself, Is he putting fairy lights in the tree?
Simile.
Shows the
shape and
brightness
coming
from it.
Imagery is light and
humorous in comparison
with what has happened.
Short sentence
shows her
sudden shock
and disbelief.
Makes her
remember a
school
history
lesson.
Meeting
between
Kings of
England and
France
where they
covered their
temporary
palaces with
golden cloth.
Shows
extravagance
.
He came into the house. The doorknobs gleamed.
He drew the blinds. You know the mind; I thought of
the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready.
He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne.
The look on his face was strange, wild, vain. I said,
What in the name of God is going on? He started to laugh.
Doesn’t recognise
the look on his
face. His greed has
given him
tremendous power.
I served up the meal. For starters, corn on the cob.
Within seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich.
He toyed with his spoon, then mine, then with the knives, the forks.
He asked where was the wine. I poured with shaking hand,
a fragrant, bone-dry white from Italy, then watched
as he picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank.
Watching the glass change.
Alliteration of harsh sound
emphasises harshness of
the reality.
Her anxiety
revealed.
Shows negative
effects of his greed.
He can not enjoy the
simple things in life.
Emphasising gold
teeth usually found
in the rich.
List of
household
things turned to
gold; how many
things he
touches.
Realisation
Humorous
Lack of real
value in gold.
It was then that I started to scream. He sank to his knees.
After we had both calmed down, I finished the wine
on my own, hearing him out. I made him sit
on the other side of the room and keep his hands to himself.
I locked the cat in the cellar. I moved the phone.
The toilet I didn't mind. I couldn't believe my ears:
how he'd had a wish. Look, we all have wishes; granted.
But who has wishes granted? Him. Do you know about gold?
It feeds no one; aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes
no thirst. He tried to light a cigarette; I gazed, entranced,
as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. At least,
I said, you'll be able to give up smoking for good.
Humorous contrasts with the
harsh truth.
Humorous. His
new ‘power’
means he won’t
be able to touch
his wife.
Deliberate pause, pun.
All have wishes but
her fool of a husband
is the one whose wish
comes true.
Summarises the effect
in one harsh sentence.
Relationship
dead.
Usually
positive but
means this
metaphor
literally. His
touch would
kill her.
Separate beds. In fact, I put a chair against my door,
near petrified. He was below, turning the spare room
into the tomb of Tutankhamun. You see, we were passionate then,
in those halcyon days; unwrapping each other, rapidly,
like presents, fast food. But now I feared his honeyed embrace,
the kiss that would turn my lips to a work of art.
And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live
with a heart of gold? That night, I dreamt I bore
his child, its perfect ore limbs, its little tongue
like a precious latch, its amber eyes
holding their pupils like flies. My dream-milk
burned in my breasts. I woke to the streaming sun.
Fear of
husband
and what he
can do.
Focuses on
what they
have lost to
emphasise
effect.
Disturbing image
Knows
her
dream of
having a
baby can
never
happen.
Relationship
destroyed.
So he had to move out. We'd a caravan
in the wilds, in a glade of its own. I drove him up
under cover of dark. He sat in the back.
And then I came home, the women who married the fool
who wished for gold. At first I visited, odd times,
parking the car a good way off, then walking.
Ironic that a
gift focussed
on wealth
left him so
poor in
other ways.
You knew you were getting close. Golden trout
on the grass. One day, a hare hung from a larch,
a beautiful lemon mistake. And then his footprints,
glistening next to the river's path. He was thin,
delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan
from the woods. Listen. That was the last straw.
What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed
but lack of thought for me. Pure selfishness. I sold
the contents of the house and came down here.
I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon,
and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead. I miss most,
even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.
Repetition emphasises that this is
the one thing she can’t have.
Causes
isolation for
both of them.
Sorrowful
description which
makes us pity him.
She is left with
anger as she thinks
of the man he was.
Mourns
their
relationship