poetry essay on my last duchess

Learn More. "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue written by Victorian poet Robert Browning in 1842. In the poem, the Duke of Ferrara uses a painting of his former wife as a conversation piece. The Duke speaks about his former wife's perceived inadequacies to a representative of the family of his bride-to-be, revealing his obsession ...

Exclusively available on IvyPanda®. 'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning is one of the finest examples of dramatic monologues. Browning dramatizes the conflict between what the Duke actually says and what he really means to say. Throughout this poem, though the Duke speaks about his demised wife, it is his arrogant obsessive nature that is ...

Summary. ' My Last Duchess ' by Robert Browning ( Bio | Poems) is a chilling poem about the value of women in a duke's life. In the first lines of the poem, the speaker tells the reader that an emissary is visiting who is trying to negotiate a new marriage for the Duke. He also describes how he was recently married, inspired by a portrait ...

Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess," first published in Dramatic Lyrics (1842), is also an ekphrastic poem: one that engages with a work of art and in this case dramatizes viewers' responses to the artwork.In the poem, Browning plays with the genre of ekphrasis to reveal the violence underlying representation. An obsessive Duke shows a visitor, and readers, a ...

By Robert Browning. FERRARA. 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.

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! "My Last Duchess" appeared in Browning's first collection of shorter poems, Dramatic Lyrics (1842). In the original edition, the poem is printed side-by-side with "Count Gismond" under the heading "Italy and France," and the two poems share a similar concern with issues of ...

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Probably Robert Browning's most famous (and widely studied) dramatic monologue, 'My Last Duchess' is spoken by the Duke of Ferrara, chatting away to an acquaintance (for whom we, the reader, are the stand-in) and revealing a sinister back-story lurking behind the portrait of his late wife, the Duchess, that…

In Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess," the duke of Ferrara addresses an emissary of the count whose daughter the duke intends to marry. The duke begins describing his deceased first wife ...

Contents. "My Last Duchess" is a famous poem written by Robert Browning. It was published in a book of poems named "Dramatic Lyrics" in 1842. As the name "Dramatic Lyrics" suggests, Browning tried to produce new trends in poetry after some experiments. He tried to combine some features of stage plays with some Romantic verses to ...

Analysis. PDF Cite Share. "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue by Robert Browning, first published in Browning's 1842 verse volume Dramatic Lyrics. This collection was part of his Bells ...

Analysis. "My Last Duchess," published in 1842, is arguably Browning's most famous dramatic monologue, with good reason. It engages the reader on a number of levels - historical, psychological, ironic, theatrical, and more. The most engaging element of the poem is probably the speaker himself, the duke. Objectively, it's easy to identify him ...

In "My Last Duchess," the dramatic monologue is directed at a courtier of a wealthy count, presumably one whose daughter the Duke is trying to marry. Before the poem even begins, the courtier has been escorted through the Duke's palace—probably through an art gallery filled with paintings and sculptures. The courtier has noticed the curtain ...

Line by Line Analysis of "My Last Duchess" "My Last Duchess," a dramatic monologue, is a single stanza poem made up of heroic couplets (heroic is a term used for iambic lines), all fully rhyming. Lines 1-4. The speaker is a man of means, a duke no less, of Ferrara, most likely a town in Italy.

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

Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess" shows women that there are consequences of behaving child-like and conforming to men's will. The Duke wanted to control the Duchess in every way when she was still alive. He wanted to ensure that her smiles and laughter were only directed to him. The Duchess's sociable personality threatened the Duke ...

STANZA 1. That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, The poem starts with the duke showing a guest a painting of his former (why is she former) wife on the wall. Language-wise 'my' immediately conveys the controlling, possessive nature of the duke. Looking as if she were alive.

Conclusion. "My Last Duchess" is a poem rich in figurative language that effectively conveys the Duke's possessive and controlling nature. Through metaphor, synecdoche, irony, and imagery, Browning skillfully portrays the Duke's arrogance and delusional mindset. The use of these literary devices serves to emphasize the themes of power, control ...

Introduction. "My Last Duchess" is a beautiful poem written by Robert Browning and it also reveals the poet's style of using dramatic monologue in writing his poems. The sixteenth century Italian background of the story adds richness to the theme, as Italy was the centre of arts. The attention of the readers has been taken away by the ...

My Last Duchess. The poem is set in a time and a place (the Italian resistance) when art was heavily valued within society. Browning was interested in this time period and results in the focus of the poem being the Duke's artwork; specifically the portrait he had made of his, now dead, first wife. The love displayed in the poem is intensely ...

In 'My Last Duchess' and 'Ozymandias' The poets present the power of humans through the main. speaker's control and name; it is clear that they believe they are the most superior. However, by the end of. both poems, the speaker's power is undermined as the victim of their abuse of power begins to gain. control, although in 'My Last ...