This essay will compare and contrast the two poems ‘Salome’ by Carol Anne Duffy and ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning. The poem ‘Salome’ by Carol Anne Duffy is presumably based on biblical story found in the New Testament books of Matthew. The historical Salome was a daughter of Herodias and Philip, who were one of the ruling families in Palestine. She danced before the ruler, Herod Antipas (Philip's half-brother and her uncle), who promised to grant her any request. John the Baptist had condemned Herodias because of her affair with Herod, who had put him in prison. Prompted by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John, and at once he was executed. The head of John was then presented to her on a platter. Either Carol Ann Duffy doesn’t have great knowledge of the history, or she deliberately takes liberties. …show more content…
The poem ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning however, is about a powerful Duke, and his beautiful, flirtatious wife. The poem begins and also ends with him mourning over her death. However, the reader is later lead to believe that he knows more about her death. The Duke chooses his words very carefully, when he talks to his friend about the painting of his wife. He only drops small hints, to his friend about the death of his Duchess. Which leads the reader to believe that the Duke killed his wife, or had someone to put her to her death. He talks of how he believed she had eyes for every other man and may have even had an affair. Also he tells the reader that she should be proud of his nine hundred year old royal
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
When people finally see the flaws, they wake up and the dream ends.” Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a haunting poem that tells the story of a seemingly perfect wife who dies, and is immortalized in a picture by her kind and loving husband. This seems to be the perfect family for a tragic accident. Upon further investigation and dissection of the poem, we discover the imperfections and this perfect “dream family” is shown for what it really is, a relationship without trust. The deceased wife appeared to be completely perfect and caring.
The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.
In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, a mother attempted to protect her daughter by sending her to church. However, in the end, the child has her entire life stolen from her. The dramatic situation in the poem is portrayed and developed through Randall’s use of descriptive imagery, dialogue, irony, and a tonal shift.
The poem ends on a less happier not that it began with; the emphasis is now on the narrator’s positive situation and the negative situation of Kate’s and the Lord’s, however, although this is the case, there are certain words within the poem, to describe the narrator, which are sad, and show off her desperation, want and even need for a better life, especially now that she has her illegitimate child. Words such as ‘shameful’ and ‘shameless’, ‘unclean’ and ‘howl’ emphasizes this point with efficiency.
In this essay I will compare and contrast a collection of different poems by Carol Anne Duffy, Robert Browning, Ben Johnson and Simon Armitage.
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
A villanelle is a very structured poem; its use creates a mask for the writer to hide behind and conform to expected constraint. “One Art” loosely follows the structure of a villanelle, keeping with the correct number of lines per stanza, but straying from the expected rhyme scheme and repetition. The use of a rigid structure confines people, forcing their ideas to be regulated. This expectation is the antithesis of individuality. Deviation from this regimentation sets people up for disappointment, “I wonder what made me think you were different,” said both Twyla and Roberta as daggering insults thrown at one another (Morrison, 256). The structure allows Bishop to seem successful in maintaining control and her composure throughout the poem “One Art,” until the last stanza when she strays from typical structure by adding the word ‘too’ in line one of the refrain and writing that loss “may look like (Write it!) like disaster” (Bishop, 18-19). Using the villanelle’s format, Bishop has to end the poem with “disaster.” Struggling with the hindrance prescribed by the framework, “(Write it!)” suggests an urgency to just finish and conform. Even though the villanelle prescribes that the refrain ends the poem, Bis...
It goes on to speak about sympathy in general and how Browning “delighted in making a case for the apparently immoral position”, how he found dramatic monologues the best form to do so, and how he went about it. It keeps going for a couple more pages on things which I will not go into because they have little relevance to any interpretation of “My Last Duchess”.
Robert Browning wrote the two poems, "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover. " Both poems convey a thoughtful, profound commentary on the concept of love. communicates two interpretations concerning Both poems describe the behavior of people who are in loving, romantic relationships. There are several aspects common to both poems. Using the literary technique of dramatic dialogue, the author reveals the plot and central idea of each poem.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are both poems by the Victorian poet Robert Browning. In this essay I will compare these two poems to find similarities and differences.
When Laura was sent down to the dead man’s cottage with a basket of leftovers, she sees happiness and beauty in the dead man’s face, and the strange intellect of life hits her straight in the face (114). The man is dead, but he seems to be sleeping peacefully. Furthermore, Katherine Mansfield is a profound artist that has a superior way with words. Mansfield could get to the precise certainty in her writing (43). However, she does it in minor, insignificant little bits and pieces of experience which no one but a delicate artist would indicate or think the value of noticing (43). “In “The Garden Party”, she talks about that absolute inward look that only comes from whipped cream. I do not know whether you feel there, as I do, the intense absorption that is partly the joy of eating whipped cream, partly to the fear of messing. Her similes can be exactly true, so that they are not similes at all but true metaphor. In one of her letters she talks about a “sea like quilted silk” and a whole flock of little winds”. All this is “purity”, perhaps, on a lower level, but it is part of her quality” (43). In Mansfield’s way of writing, she makes her collection of books easily to read and understand. Moreover, Mansfield’s short stories are superlative because a vast number of stories can be
In "My Last Duchess", by Robert Browning, the character of Duke is portrayed as having controlling, jealous, and arrogant traits. These traits are not all mentioned verbally, but mainly through his actions. In the beginning of the poem the painting of the Dukes wife is introduced to us: "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,/ looking as of she were still alive" (1-2). These lines leave us with the suspicion that the Duchess is no longer alive, but at this point were are not totally sure. In this essay I will discuss the Dukes controlling, jealous and arrogant traits he possesses through out the poem.
“O Rose! Who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet.” (A Dead Rose) Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an impenetrable hardworking person. Her passion for her work left her with the legacy she has today. “Amongst all women poets of the English world in the 19th century; she was admired for her independence and courage.” During her lifetime she endured several hardships. Those hardships included her childhood, marriage, and works. (Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature Pg. 87)
Throughout "My Last Duchess," Browning uses diction to further increase the haunting effect of his dramatic monologue. His precise and scattered word choice is meant to make the reader recognize the underlying haughtiness in his speech to the Count's emissary. The Duke refers to his former wife's portraits "depth" and "passion" in order to place a cloudiness over the realism of the painting. This, along with the "faint" and "half-flush" appearance that "dies along her throat," brings about an overcast appearance to the poem. The Duke's "trifling" lack of "countenance" is evident in his jealousy of