"The World's Wife" by Carol Ann Duffy

Salome is one of the more complicated works in the world's wife. The poem begins in Salome's bedroom, where she vaguely talks about doing something bad; "I'd done it before, (and doubtless I'd do it again, sooner or later)". She carries on with her morning, tired, hungover, calling for the maid, and talking about going clean ; stopping drinking, sex, cigarettes. The text makes references to one night stands. 

"It was time to turf out the biter, the beater or biter / who'd come like a lamb to the slaughter / to Salome's bed" creates a considerable shift in tone; Salome becomes menacing, worrying. The final stanza reveals the head bloody of John the Baptist in her bedsheets, propped onto a platter, referencing the original myth. 

Carol Ann Duffy uses the trope of the femme fatale, by creating a modern version of Salome's character, inspired by Oscar Wilde's play, where Salome kills the men she seduces. The underlying idea is that she kills men out of a dislike for them, as though to atone for the "sins" of the male sex- "lamb to the slaughter" being an allusion to jesus dying for other's sins.

King Midas is the second work we've studied in the world's wife. I personally find it easier than Salome, because the message is more clear, and perhaps because I've been able to get used to poetry again through studying Salome.

The poem begins in a traditional, peaceful domestic scene where Mrs Midas is cooking, and looking out the window. This modern retelling makes the couple into an average middle/upper middle class family, in a suburban setting. The poem grows more unsettling as Mrs Midas spots her husband snapping the twigs of the pear tree they'd grown together.  From then on the poem gets darker ; the once happy couple is kept apart by the golden touch, Mrs Midas grows lonely, Mr Midas eventually succumbs to madness, and he eventually leaves home to live isolated in the forest.

The poem treats universal themes of greed, materialism, and selfishness. King Midas' destrcutive desire for gold and lack of thought for his wife drove him to ruin their relationship and lives, and hurts both of them. Carol Ann Duffy makes her point about materialism clear with the single line : "It  [gold] feeds no one". 

"Medusa" : The greek myth of Medusa