Mrs Midas and Anne Hathaway set text

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Mrs Midas and Anne Hathaway are both poems by Carol Ann Duffy. They both come from The Worlds Wife, Duffy's first themed collection of poems. In this set of poems, Duffy considers both real and fictional characters, stories, histories and myths that focus on men and gives voice to the woman that associated with them. They both take the perspective of a woman living without her lover. However,

although Anne Hathaway deals with the positive love and rememberance of

her lover, Mrs Midas deals with the negative rememberance of her love

for Midas.

Duffy presents a new perspective and uses the bed, Shakespeare has left her, as a metaphor for the intense passion and romance shared by the couple. Duffy gives the bed a much more magical and sensual meaning;

"The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifttops, seas where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses."

Immediately the reader is transported to a magical landscape filled with metaphors. This section of the poem suggests that their love made her dizzy and intoxicating. In their lovemaking they found something precious and valuable, as implied by the "pearls". This intimate, sensual tone is continued in the metaphor comparing her lovers words to "shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses" Hathaway was seduced firstly by her lover's language and poetry, which literally seems to fall from the heavens as though a gift from the Gods before transforming into the physical touch of a kiss. Duffy clearly illustrates the intensity of the romantic, passionate relationship of the two lovers. However, Mrs Midas also goes on to speak about her husbands gift but instead highlights the damage it has done to their relationship;

"Seperate beds"

Mrs Midas' terror of her husband touching her is continued and emphasised as she reveals how she even puts a chair against the door at night as she is "near petrified",scared of being turned into gold, a harsh consequence and the reality, should he come near her. This symbolises that their relationship and dreams are effectively dead. The separatness of the couple is further highlighted as she focuses on the physical suffering they must now endure the last memories of their husbands, incontrast to the fullfilling relationship they enjoyed before Midas was granted his wish, just as Anne Hathway and Shakespeare also had until Shakespeares death;

"Waking to the streaming sun"

Mrs Midas reminds us that each day she will awake to a world in which gold dominates every waking moment. This suggest that Mrs Midas will always love her husband but with this love also comes hatred for what he has done to their relationship due to his own selfishness and greed and that the sun is a painful reminder she would rather not have. However, Anne Hathaway holds her lover and their memories close;

"I hold him in the casket of my widows head as he held me upon that next best bed"

The metaphor of holding her lover in the protective "casket" of her imagination reiterates the idea presented in the previous line suggesting that our memory of a deceased loved one in a way allows their continued existence dealing with the themes of passionate love as well as death and rememberance in both poems.