Mrs Midas

• "It was late September." - Autumn: a season we associate with golden

  colours and decay.
• "I’d just poured a glass of wine, begun to unwind, while the vegetables cooked." - Mrs Midas presented in a typical domestic scene, pouring a

  glass of wine as she cooks and begins to unwind. Everything seems apparently normal. Serves as a contrast for the bizarre events that are to follow.
• "its steamy breath" - Personification of kitchen makes it sound as if its hot breath is steaming up the windows.
• "gently blanching the windows." - Blanching – cooking term meaning to steam. Mrs Midas wipes steam from window and sees her husband outside.
• "Now the garden was long and the visibility poor," - The steamy windows, murky evening and distance cause Mrs M to doubt what she sees at first.
• "it sat in his palm, like a lightbulb. On." - Image (simile) of pear like a lightbulb effectively conveys both the shape of the pear and the brightness emanating from it. The full stops and single word sentence in ‘On.’ add a comedic effect, highlighting Mrs Midas’ shock, disbelief and sudden dawning of awareness of what she has just witnessed.
• "is he putting fairy lights in the tree?" - Question reflects she is still unsure about what she has witnessed and tries to find a reasonable

  explanation for it.
• "mind; I thought of the Field of the Cloth of Gold and of Miss Macready." - Allusion. As Midas journeys through the kitchen turning everything to gold, Mrs Midas is reminded of Miss Macready’s history lesson. The Field of the Cloth of Gold was the meeting place near Calais where Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France gathered in 1520.
• "like a king on a burnished throne." - Ironic. Reminds us of the myth of King Midas.
• "The look on his face was strange, wild, vain." - His face reflects his emotions as he comes to terms with the tremendous power he has been given. Maniacal.
• "What in the name of God is going on? He started to laugh." - Emphatic, interrogative question suggests an exasperated wife faced with the latest example of a husband’s infuriating behaviour.
• "I served up the meal." - Mrs Midas attempts to instill a sense of normality by serving dinner.
• "Within seconds he was spitting out the teeth of the rich." - Comic tone is maintained in this image of the corn cobs being like golden teeth. Golden fillings usually only seen in the mouths of the wealthy!
• "I poured with a shaking hand," - Still in shock. Panic as she realises she could be next.
• "glass, goblet, golden chalice," - Alliteration is used to highlight the seriousness of the situation as she watches the transformation of the

  glass in front of her.
• "It was then that I started to scream. He sank to his knees." - Reality sinks in and both try to come to terms with his new power. Remainder of the poem concentrates on the implications of Midas’ gift.
• "I finished the wine on my own," - Mrs Midas is still in shock.
• "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." - Slowly becoming aware of the consequences of such power. Humour being used to show the ridiculousness of the situation.
• "I couldn’t believe my ears:" - Duffy inserts a deliberate pause to imitate the speaker’s incredulity upon hearing how her husband has been granted a wish.
• "Look, we all have wishes; granted. But who has wishes granted?" - The word ‘granted’ is a pun which is repeated to convey her surprise: people can and do make wishes but it is very rare for them to come true. The use of a question also highlights her surprise.
• "Him." - Single word sentence highlights her exasperation . Truly aggrieved her husband could be so foolish as to wish for gold.
• "Do you know about gold? It feeds no one; aurum, soft, untarnishable; slakes no thirst." - She raises awareness of the futility of such a wish

  since gold feeds no one. There is emptiness in seeking wealth for its own sake- a lack of real value in gold.
• "At least, I said, you’ll be able to give up smoking for good." - Humour injected to contrast with the serious, harsh reality.
• "Separate beds. In fact, I put a chair against my door, near petrified." - Highlights the damage Midas’ gift has done to their relationship. Terror emphasised in ‘petrified’, scared of being turned into gold (stone).
• "turning the spare room into the tomb of Tutankhamun." - Symbolises that their relationship and dreams are effectively dead.
• "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," - Contrast highlights the distance between them. Once enjoyed a passionate relationship; now she fears his deadly touch. Emotional distance also as she cannot understand such a decision.
• "And who, when it comes to the crunch, can live with a heart of gold?" - Usually, this expression has positive connotations and is associated with kindness and empathy. Here, this familiar metaphor is ironically inverted as the literal meaning is implied, inferring that it would be impossible to survive as a living being with such a heart.
• "That night, I dreamt I bore his child," - Dream expresses her sadness at being deprived of the opportunity to have a family.
• "its amber eyes holding their pupils like flies." - Initially attractive description of the baby turns into a disturbing image: dream baby appears dead and lifeless.
• "I woke to the streaming sun." - Waking to the streaming sun, again, poignantly reminds us that each day she will awake to a world in which gold dominates every waking moment.
• "So he had to move out." - The consequences of the myth continues to destroy their relationship and effect their lives.
• "At first, I visited, odd times," - Initially tries to maintain a relationship but later realises this is impossible.
• "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." - Mrs Midas presents images of a solitary, distanced, detached lifestyle.
• "He was thin, delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan from the woods." - Midas in a sorrowful state: wasting away, hearing the music of Pan. Associates him with another Greek god, the isolated figure of Pan, who was the god of shepherds and flocks. Ironic that Midas’ gift, so equated with wealth and prosperity, should result in such emotional

  poverty.
• "What gets me now is not the idiocy or greed but lack of thought for me." - Mrs Midas reiterates her anger at her husband’s ‘pure selfishness’ which has deprived them both of any physical relationship and a family.
• "I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon," - Shares a wistful, regretful sense of loss for the man she married. Humour still underlying as she remembers him at times when the golden sun rises or sets!
• "I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch." - Repetition of the word ‘hands’ emphasises that his touch, once a potent symbol of their intimacy is now lost forever and reminds us that, unlike human skin to skin contact, gold is cold and hard.