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My Last Duchess - R. Browning
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Analysis of my last duchess poem
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Biographical information:Browning has come to be regarded as one of the most important English poets of the
Victorian period. His dramatic monologues have established him as a major figure in the
history of English poetry. His approach to dramatic monologue influenced countless poets
for almost a century.
Browning was born on May 7, 1812 in Camberwell, a middle-class suburb of London. Much
of Browning’s education was conducted at home by his father. Browning decided as a child
that he wanted to be a poet, and he never seriously attempted any other profession.
Elizabeth Barrett met Browning and the two poets fell deeply in love. In 1846 they eloped.
Browning wrote relatively little during the marriage, in part because the family frequently
moved and, because of Elizabeth’s frail health. They had one child, Robert.
Browning’s major contribution to the canon of children’s literature, “The Pied Piper of
Hamelin,” has retained its popular audience.
Structure – dramatic monologue:
Browning is best known for perfecting, if not devising, this poetic form.
A central speaker speaks throughout the poem, either to himself or to others whose
presence is implied but not actually stated or shown (as in a play).
The tone is distinctively colloquial as there are varying levels of irony where the speaker’s
personality/true self is revealed.
The poem is one single paragraph or stanza as it encapsulates one single moment and place
in time.
One person speaks (the Duke of Ferrara) while the other listens (in this case a marriage
broker who is arranging the marriage of the Duke to his ‘next’ Duchess, the daughter of a
count).
The comments are implied but not spoken. What is left unsaid tells as much as what is said.
The poem is written in 56 iambic pentameter lines, arranged in rhyming couplets: with ten
syllables per line. It gives it a regularity and a control. The form is perfect for such a
measured and calculating man.
The meter is one way that Browning creates that calm, cool, collected speech from a
calculated man.
The caesurae makes the lines in which they appear abrupt, jarring, and insensitive. They
contribute to an effect of raggedness which is unusual in what is supposed to be poetry.
The caesurae also suggests that the is hiding something and that he is pausing to think. This
is often associated with lying or embellishing.
The staccato punctuation (dashes, exclamations and questions, the repetition, the
monosyllables) creates broken; brittle; fragmented lines.
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