MAKING MEANING

Comparing Texts
Now, you will read a twentieth-century poem
that takes the King Midas tale in a very different
direction. After you complete the first-read and
THE GOLDEN TOUCH from KING MIDAS
close-read activities, you will compare the poem to
Hawthorne’s short story.

About the Poet

from King Midas
Concept Vocabulary
As you perform your first read of the poem, you will encounter these words.

mail   obdurate   ore

Howard Moss (1922–1987)

Context Clues If these words are unfamiliar to you, try using context
is best known as the poetry clues—other words and phrases that appear nearby in the text—to help
editor for the New Yorker you determine their meanings.
magazine, a position he
held for almost forty years, Synonyms: Midas rules over his dominion, a kingdom spanning a
beginning in 1950. The portion of modern-day Turkey.
New Yorker’s poetry editor
holds a unique position in Contrast of Ideas: Though usually well-behaved, the toddler was
America’s literary world. As incorrigible when it came to long car rides.
editor, Moss was responsible
for discovering and nurturing
Apply your knowledge of context clues and other vocabulary strategies to
the careers of many of the determine the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter during your
twentieth century’s most first read.
important poets. In fact,
Moss was an accomplished First Read POETRY
poet himself and produced
fourteen highly praised
Apply these strategies as you conduct your first read. You will have an
books of poetry during his opportunity to complete a close read after your first read.
career. In 1972, Moss won a
National Book Award for his
book Selected Poems. © Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Notice who or what is Annotate by marking

“speaking” the poem and vocabulary and key passages
whether the poem tells a story you want to revisit.
or describes a single moment.

 STANDARDS
Reading Literature Connect ideas within Respond by completing
By the end of grade 10, read and
comprehend literature, including the selection to what you the Comprehension Check.
stories, dramas, and poems, at the already know and what you
high end of the grades 9–10 text have already read.
complexity band independently and
proficiently.
Language
Use context as a clue to the meaning
of a word or phrase.

460 UNIT 4 • ALL THAT GLITTERS

 POETRY

from

King Midas
Howard Moss

BACKGROUND
The Greek myth of King Midas identifies Midas as King of Phrygia, a region SCAN FOR
MULTIMEDIA
that is currently part of Turkey. As the story goes, one day some local
farmers find a part-man, part-goat satyr asleep in their field and bring him
to the king. Midas recognizes the creature as Silenus, a close companion of
© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Dionysus, the god of grapes, wine, and festive merriment. Midas gives food
and comfort to the satyr. Soon, Dionysus arrives and is grateful to Midas
for treating his companion so generously. In recognition of this hospitality,
Dionysus offers to grant Midas a single wish.
NOTES
Mark context clues or indicate
I. THE KING’S SPEECH another strategy you used that
helped you determine meaning.
The palace clocks are stiff as coats of mail.
mail (mayl) n.
Time stopped; I flicked it with my fingernail.
MEANING:
My taste is shattered on these works of art
It fathers by a touch: My bread’s too rich,
5 My butter much too golden, and my meat
A nugget on my plate as cold as ice;

from King Midas 461

 Fresh water in my throat turns precious there,
NOTES Where every drop becomes a millionaire.

I rather would be blind than see this world

10 All affluent in yellow, bought and sold
By Kings that hammer roses into gold:
Mark context clues or indicate
another strategy you used that
I did not know I loved their warring thorns
helped you determine meaning. Until they flowered into spikes so hard
obdurate (OB duhr iht) adj. My blood made obdurate the rose’s stem.
MEANING: 15 My God was generous. O much too much!
The nearest rose is now beyond my reach.

My furry cat is sculpture, my dog dead;

They stare at me with four wild sparkling eyes
That used to sparkle with dry wit; instead,
20 Having no wit that they can profit by,
They are pure profit, and their silences
Might make a King go mad, for it was I
Who made their lively muscles stiffly pose—
This jaundice1 is relentless, and it grows.

25 Princess, come no closer; my rigid kiss,

Though it is royal still, will make you this
Or that kind of a statue. And my Queen,
Be armed against this gold paralysis,
Mark context clues or indicate
another strategy you used that Or you will starve and thinly bed alone,
helped you determine meaning. 30 And when you dream, a gold mine in your brain
ore (awr) n. Will have both eyes release their golden ore
MEANING: And cry for tears they could not cry before.

I would be nothing but the dirt made loud,

A ripeness of the weeds, a timid sun,
35 Or oppositely be entirely cloud,
Absolved of matter, dissolving in the rain,
© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Or any small, anonymous live thing
Than be the reigning King of this dominion
Where gold makes poor the richness of decay.
40 O Dionysus, change me back to clay!

1. jaundice (JAWN dihs) n. disease that causes one’s skin to turn yellow.

462 UNIT 4 • ALL THAT GLITTERS

 II. THE PRINCESS’S SONG
NOTES
I praise the bird, the river, and the tree.
If I were deaf or dumb, I could not see
Imagination is the heart of me.

A falling leaf in fall’s a thing to mourn.

45 When river beds are dry, nothing is born.
Dear sparrow, sing your song this blessed morn.

Divided into two, I am a tree.

The branches are too high for me to see,
The roots too hidden from reality.

50 They say that veins of gold lie underground.

Beware, explorers, of the spoil you find:
Though you sail back and forth, you sail around.

The laurel grows upon the laurel tree.

Apollo2 plucked the string of mystery
55 And made a golden echo in the sea.

III. THE QUEEN’S SPEECH

May every child of mine be barren, golden!
May every mammal turn to golden swine!
Here is a list, O gardeners and huntsmen,
Of what to kill and what to leave alone:
60 All natural things must go excepting those
That are by nature golden. Whatever grows
The King’s touchy color let live, but close
Your nets upon the pink and crimson rose.

But I will save one rose tree in this pot

© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

65 That I may gaze at it, and when he’s not

About, I’ll look and look till light is gone
At flower, petal, stem, and leaf. And then,
I’ll ponder how a King became a fool!
Long live King Midas! And the Golden Rule!

2. Apollo (uh POL oh) Greek god of light and music.

from King Midas 463

Comprehension Check
Complete the following items after you finish your first read. Review and clarify
details with your group.

1. What causes the palace clocks to stop at the beginning of the poem?

2. What has happened to the pets in the king’s household?

3. At the end of “The King’s Speech,” what request does Midas make to the god that gave
him the golden touch?

4. What orders does the Queen give to her gardeners and huntsmen?

© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

5. How does the Queen view Midas and his wish?

RESEARCH
Research to Clarify Choose at least one unfamiliar detail from the text. Briefly research that
detail. In what way does the information you learned shed light on an aspect of the poem?

Research to Explore Find out more about retellings or adaptations of Greek myths.
Which popular books and movies are based on these ancient stories?

464 UNIT 4 • ALL THAT GLITTERS

 MAKING MEANING

Close Read
With your group, revisit sections of the text you marked
during your first read. Annotate details that you notice.
What questions do you have? What can you conclude?
from King Midas

Analyze the Text

Complete the activities.
1. Review and Clarify With your group, reread lines 1–8 of “The King’s
GROUP DISCUSSION
Speech.” Based on the speaker’s descriptions, what are some words and
phrases you might use to describe Midas? Hawthorne’s story shows
King Midas both before and
2. Present and Discuss Now, work with your group to share the passages after he gains “the golden
from the text that you found especially important. Take turns presenting touch.” Moss’s poem begins
your passages. Discuss what you noticed in the text, what questions you after Midas has received
asked and what conclusions you reached. this gift. Consider how this
change affects how you see
3. Essential Question: What do our possessions reveal about us? What the king and why the poet
has this selection taught you about materialism? Discuss with your group. may have made this choice.

language development

Concept Vocabulary
mail     obdurate      ore

Why These Words? The three concept vocabulary words are related. With
 WORD NETWORK
your group, determine what the words have in common. Write your ideas,
Add words related to
and add another word that fits the category.
materialism from the text to
your Word Network.
© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Practice
Notebook Write a fill-in-the-blank sentence for each concept word,
leaving a space where the word would be. Trade your work with another
group member. Challenge each other to identify each missing word.

Word Study
Latin Root: -dur- In “King Midas,” the speaker laments that his touch has
made a rose’s stem obdurate. The word obdurate is formed from the Latin
root -dur-, meaning “hard,” “strong,” or “lasting.” Write the meanings of
these words formed from the root -dur-: endure, duration, durable. Use a  Standards
print or online dictionary to verify your definitions. Language
Identify and correctly use patterns of
word changes that indicate different
meanings or parts of speech.

from King Midas 465

 MAKING MEANING

Analyze Craft and Structure

Author’s Choices: Poetic Structure The way in which a poet organizes a
poem is referred to as poetic structure. Two of the main building blocks of
poetic structure are stanzas and rhyme.
from King Midas
• Stanza: A stanza is a group of lines, usually separated from other stanzas
by space. Stanzas are named according to their number of lines, as
follows: couplet: a two-line stanza; tercet: a three-line stanza; quatrain: a
four-line stanza; sestet: a six-line stanza; octave: an eight-line stanza.
• Rhyme: Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words. Exact
rhyme is the use of identical sounds, as in love and dove. Slant rhyme is
the use of similar sounds that do not match perfectly, as in prove and glove.
• Rhyme Scheme: A regular pattern of end rhyme—or rhyming words
at the ends of lines—is called a rhyme scheme. Rhyme schemes are
identified by the use of letters, with one letter assigned to each rhyming
 STANDARDS sound. For example, in “When You Are Old,” William Butler Yeats uses
Reading the rhyme scheme abba:
Analyze how an author’s choices
concerning how to structure a When you are old and gray and full of sleep, a
text, order events within it, and
manipulate time create such effects And nodding by the fire, take down this book, b
as mystery, tension, or surprise. And slowly read, and dream of the soft look, b
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; a

CITE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

Practice to support your answers.

In the chart, use the letters a, b, c, and so on to identify the rhyming

sounds that end each line from “The Queen’s Speech.” Then, note
whether each pair of rhymes is exact or slant.

LINE RHYMING SOUND EXACT OR SLANT

But I will save one rose tree in this pot

That I may gaze at it, and when he’s not

About, I’ll look and look till light is gone

© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

At flower, petal, stem, and leaf. And then,

I’ll ponder how a King became a fool!

Long live King Midas! And the Golden Rule!

Notebook Respond to these questions.

1. Why do you think the poet chose to vary stanza lengths for each
section of the poem? How do the different types of stanzas reflect the
ways in which each speaker thinks and feels?

2. Note the rhyme schemes of “The King’s Speech” and “The Princess’s
Song.” How do the two rhyme schemes affect your reading of these
sections? Why might the second section be called a “song”?

466 UNIT 4 • ALL THAT GLITTERS

 ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What do our possessions reveal about us?

Author’s Style
Author’s Choices: Poetic Structure In poetry, the arrangement of
stressed (´) and unstressed ( ˇ ) syllables is called meter. The basic unit of
meter is the foot, which usually consists of one stressed and one or more
unstressed syllables. The most frequently used foot in American poetry is
the iamb—one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The type
and number of feet in the lines of a poem determine its meter. For example,
a pattern of five iambs per line is known as iambic pentameter (the prefix
penta- means “five”). The sections from “King Midas” are written in iambic
pentameter.

Poets also use enjambment, or the continuation of a sentence past a

line break. Enjambment allows the poet to continue the flow of ideas and
also maintain a metrical pattern. For instance, in “The King’s Speech,” the
sentence that begins in line 9 ends in line 11.

Read It
Work individually. Reread the first stanza of “The King’s Speech.” Use a
vertical rule to separate individual feet. Then, mark the stressed (´) and
unstressed ( ˇ ) syllables of each foot. Note: The poet may deviate from strict
iambic pentameter, perhaps by including two stressed syllables or more than
two syllables in a foot, or by using fewer than five feet per line. Identify these
variations, and consider how they add to the poem’s meaning. The first line
has been marked for you. After all members of your group have finished
marking the stanza, compare and discuss your work.

Tȟe pál | ače cloćks | aře stíll | aˇs coáts | oˇf ma´il

Time stopped; I flicked it with my fingernail.

My taste is shattered on these works of art

It fathers by a touch: My bread’s too rich,

My butter much too golden, and my meat

A nugget on my plate as cold as ice;

© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Fresh water in my throat turns precious there,

Where every drop becomes a millionaire.

Write It
Notebook Write a short poem based on the King Midas story, using
iambic pentameter. You may choose whether to use either uniform or varied
stanza lengths, as well as whether or not to use rhyme.

from King Midas 467