The Differences Between Porphyria’s Lover and Mariana

The Differences Between Porphyria’s Lover and Mariana

Both of the poems have deep backgrounds to them, there are many

different emotions to them, pain, anger and most of all love. Both use

very similar language ‘he cometh not’ a part taken out of Mariana ‘she

put my arm about her waist’ taken from Porphyria’s lover. You can tell

that they are both set in the nineteenth century, the words that they

both use are not modern English but correct English. As you read

Mariana the built up is very strong, you get the disturbing feeling

about a woman waiting for someone day in and day out. You can feel her

disappointment ‘my life is dreary he cometh not’, ‘I am aweary,

aweary I would that I were dead’ this shows us how much she feels for

this person. Alfred gives us the sense of how long she has been

waiting for by saying ‘the rusted nails fell from knots’ and he also

includes ‘the blackest moss the flower-pots were thickly crusted’. It

also gives us a feeling of neglect ‘the broken shed’. We know that she

stays all day in the house because it states ‘all day within the

dreamy house’. Porphyria’s love on the other hand is a man waiting for

his lover. The beginning is very cold and not very friendly ‘the rain

set early in tonight’ and ‘where ‘the sullen wind was soon awake’

there is also a mention about the lake – ‘the vex lake’, so the angry

lake is stirring he is also feeling the pain of the like. But his

loved one comes she gives a warm feeling ‘made the cheerless grate

blaze up, and all the cottage warm’. A flirtatious feeling is given by

the fact that he shoulder is uncovered and her damp hair falls on her

shoulder.

She murmurs to him how much she feels for him but he knows that they

could never be together because of their different backgrounds. But he

feels the same amount of passion and love for her and has jealousy of