This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

Robert Browning - 'My Last Duchess'

1

Hi everyone

I'm trying to write an essay on Browning's My Last Duchess for my English degree, but I'm struggling to find examples of poetic form etc. I havent written an essay in 18 months so the words just arent coming to me!!

Here is the poem - can anyone please help me and find any examples of similies, metaphors, hyberboles, litotes, paradox, irony etc?
Who likes the poem? Would you say it falls into a particular poetic genre?

My Last Duchess
Robert Browning

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will `t please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, `twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart -- how shall I say? -- too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, `twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -- all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men -- good! but thanked
Somehow -- I know not how -- as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech -- which I have not -- to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark" -- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
-- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will `t please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innshruck cast in bronze for me!

Rep for anyone that can help!
Jenna xxx

Reply 1

~Sam~

15

Erm, you can't actually give rep so it's not much of a reward :tongue:

. I would love to help, but I've never come across the poem before. Sorry :smile:

. BTW, are you at Manchester uni doing English? What's it like?

Reply 2

Agrippina

15

Jenna999

can anyone please help me and find any examples of similies, metaphors, hyberboles, litotes, paradox, irony etc

No offence, but I'm somewhat surprised that somebody doing an English degree would need help identifying any of the above...! :eek:

Reply 3

F. Poste

I'm doing Browning this week too :smile:

It's a dramatic monologue btw.

Reply 4

Geogger

13

Try
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/anthology/pre1914poetry.htm#duchess

Reply 5

W.A.S Hewins

Eeyore

No offence, but I'm somewhat surprised that somebody doing an English degree would need help identifying any of the above...! :eek:

I for one am not surprised that somebody would have dificulty with this poem - I remember how incredibly boring it was - it's one of the dullest pieces of 'classic' literature I've ever been asked to study..

Reply 6

Jenna999

OP

1

Geogger

Try
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/anthology/pre1914poetry.htm#duchess

BRILLIANT, thanks loads

The poem is OK, it's a bit overrated though I think, considering it's meant to be one of the most famous dramatic monologues ever....

Reply 7

F. Poste

Porphyria's Lover is great though :smile:

Reply 8

bubzy

hey, i wrote a short analysis on this one, i'll put it up for you soon if that is fine with you.

Reply 9

Jenna999

OP

1

Cheers, I've already handed it in now though...

Reply 10

platinumki

10

W.A.S Hewins

I for one am not surprised that somebody would have dificulty with this poem - I remember how incredibly boring it was - it's one of the dullest pieces of 'classic' literature I've ever been asked to study..

Oh, no! I love ths poem. I mean, this is seriously creepy! And why can't the poster give rep?

Reply 11

Clodagh

“obsessive behaviour….designed to evade traumatic psychological experiences, often sexual in their origin"--W. David Shaw “Browning’s Duke as Theatrical Producer”, Robert Browning’s Poetry, ed. James F. Loucks

Note the Freudian obsessional desire for control over the female; notions of his masculinity and neurosis of the ideal of 'Angel in the House' and the passive/private spehere (feminist critical reading). You can also talk about the relation of morality to art in a wider context using 'Porphyria's Lover' and 'Fra Lippo Lippi', also 'Andrea del Sarto' Tennyson is the ULTIMATE Victorian though. Sorry Bob.

Reply 12

Jenna999

OP

1

Thanks, it has been handed in thuogh!

Reply 13

Clodagh

Meh. Any other impending crises coming up??

Reply 14

Jenna999

OP

1

Yeah actually... if you are going to be discussing the opening of a play and how it would work in performance, what sort of things should you look for? Is there a checklist or something? Anyone?

Reply 15

Clodagh

Is there a specific play you're working on? :smile:

I'd go for staging (use of props, eg: 'Waiting for Godot'-the tree) whether it's minimalist or exuberant staging and what the it contributes to the play/audience. Actor-audience interaction, definitely. eg: 'Mankind' (14th C play, in the same manuscript as 'Everyman') has a comic devil Titivillus, and the play is stopped for the actors to collect monies from the audience for Titivillus to enter, and he entices them from offstage. Offstage exploitation if there is some present. Any subtext that is implicit either in speech/clothing/lighting/background. This can be done for a whole play, rather than just the opening, obviously.

Reply 16

Jenna999

OP

1

Thanks. The play is the opening of Harold Pinter's 'The Caretaker', anyone know it? I have looked at the use of silence, costume, the setting... But am still 400 words short... What is offstage exploitation?

Reply 17

Clodagh

It's where the dramatist uses the offstage to effect; eg: have a character speak from offstage or have implied events happen off the stage.

Robert Browning - 'My Last Duchess'

Related discussions

Articles for you

How The Student Room is moderated