A Comparison Between My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover

A Comparison Between My Last Duchess and Porphyria's Lover

Works Cited Missing

Robert Browning was one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth

century and is still considered one of the major poets of the

Victorian era. He was born in 1812 and married the privately educated

poet, Elizabeth Browning, in 1846. They eloped to Florence, Italy,

where his wife gave birth to their son, but after the death of

Elizabeth, Robert moved back to London and it was here that he died in

1889.

Two of his most famous poems: 'My Last Duchess' and 'Porphyria's

Lover' were published in 1842 as part of the 'Dramatic lyrics'. They

are both dramatic monologues, which provide an overall or intimate

view of a character's personality, but 'My Last Duchess' is written in

iambic pentameter, whereas Porphyria's Lover is written in iambic

tetrameter, which includes 4 stressed beats per line.

Both poems are narrated from the male lover's point of view. As a

result, the reader becomes more closely involved in the poems. In 'My

Last Duchess' we are invited into the poem; 'Wilt please you sit and

look at her'. As this involves us directly we feel very strong

emotions for the individuals portrayed and this is more effective.

In the opening lines of 'My Last Duchess' the Duke is showing off a

painting to an advisor of a Count: 'That's my last Duchess painted on

the wall, / Looking as if she were alive.' This immediately implies

that she is dead and the painting of his wife is there to show off and

be admired by other people. It may also imply that he is ...

... middle of paper ...

...s to it including obsession and death,

which we do not contemplate for. The poems deal with all these issues

but in conclusion most have one common theme of eternal love. They

exhibit the idea of being reunited one day but in different ways. The

Duke has the picture, which he can admire to remind himself of her as

well as showing off to his guests. Shakespeare clearly believes that

love is eternal and if it is not then he promises to destroy his

sonnets and all poems in the love and death section hope that they

will meet again one day in 'the silent land.'

In conclusion I hope to have shown a detailed examination of the poems

I have studied and made reference to others, showing how they link in

with many of the poems. Love is something we all want to encounter one

day but as we have seen can have bitter consequences.