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Ballad, Porphyria's Lover, To His Coy Mistress and My Last Duchess

SamW — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:51:22 GMT

Basically, I have been set a piece of coursework: to compare the aforementioned poems. I am going for an A* piece at GCSE level, there is no particular question, just to compare the four poems. I have almost completed My Last Duchess, mentioning all the themes I can think of and reading the topics on here for extra guidance. However, I could do with some guidance on how to compare the four as a whole. I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out, heres the essay I have written thus far:

Love poetry can be manipulated to affect the reader in numerous ways; the reader can empathise with the poem, the reader can be inspired by the sentiment of the poem, the reader can attempt to emulate the actions of the characters, the consequences of reading a stirring love poem persist. One aspect that all love poetry has in common is the way in which it can engross the reader in its world and engage with their emotional side. They achieve this by using a number of devices and several genres are used to conjure up vastly varying types of emotions: anger, amorousness, longing, and disgust amongst others. One of the foremost genres is that of the dramatic monologue â in which a character delivers a speech explaining their feelings, actions or motives. I will be analysing three starkly differing dramatic monologues: âMy Last Duchessâ, âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. Another variation of love poetry is that of the ballad; a timeless art form that is significantly popular to this day. A ballad tells a dramatic story in a direct style, focussing on a single story; repetition is a particularly commonly used convention in ballads. Ballads are traditionally anonymous, and the poem I am analysing is no different: âBalladâ. âMy Last Duchessâ is written from the perspective of a duke who is on the verge of marrying the Countâs daughter and is conversing with the Countâs servant. His previous Duchess was murdered by the Duke himself and the speech could be interpreted as self-justification by the Duke as he attempts to defend his questionable philosophies. âBalladâ is a direct story told through the perspective of a young woman. The lady has fallen in love with a shepherd; unfortunately, it transpires that the man is dishonest. This is revealed when the shepherd impregnates the young woman and flees; his promises unfulfilled. The resolution is minimal at most, the female being left to contemplate suicide. The dramatic monologue has several different forms in itself; the two remaining poems showcase this perfectly. Despite the fact that they are completely different in theme, atmosphere and tempo, they retain the conventions of a dramatic monologue. âTo His Coy Mistressâ is a classic literary piece by Andrew Marvell. The poem is written through the eyes of a male, attempting to âswoonâ his prospective lady into falling for him and consequently, into bed. The male argues, then counter-balances his argument and then concludes, concluding that, surprisingly enough, she should go to bed with him. The last of the quartet is âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, the poem is told through the perspective of a madman sitting with his lover. Porphyria, the woman he loves, comes to his cottage and tells him she loves him. The madman wants to immortalise the moment forever, so he strangles her with her own hair. From the moment âMy Last Duchessâ begins, one can tell that the Duke is an incredibly possessive man. This is reinforced by the opening line, âThatâs my last Duchess painted on the wall.â This epitomises his attitude towards possessions of any kind. One could draw parallels with the overbearing Duke and Porphyriaâs lover, both extremely domineering and possessive. This is exemplified by the quote in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, when the lover is on the verge of killing his woman, âThat moment she was mine, mine.â This epitomises the loverâs attitude, he is so desperate to own her that he kills her. Robert Browning conveys this obsessively possessive character by using repetition of the phrase, âmineâ. The theme of obsessive and possessive love on behalf of men is clearly at the forefront of Browningâs mind, portraying similar leading men in both of the poems. The Duke is speaking formally to a social inferior, as emphasised in this quote, âWillât please you sit and look at herâ¦Strangers like youâ¦â This insinuates that he is a polite, pleasant man who treats all social classes similarly hence making the revelation of him murdering his last Duchess all the more shocking. The domineering aspect of his character is re-enforced with the quote, âsince none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I.â This embellishes the fact that he sees himself the only one worthy of certain duties. Furthermore, he is clearly happier with the portrait of his wife, âas if aliveâ than he was with the woman when she was living. He is such an authoritarian that anything that he cannot order or control, whether it is art or people, will suffer the consequences. The poem is organised into rhyming couplets, not dissimilar to âBalladâ and âTo His Coy Mistressâ. However, âPorphyriaâs Loverâ does not use rhyming couplets; this may be due to the fact that Browning was looking for an unpredictable rhythm to reflect the unpredictable storyline. The couplets are used in the relative poems to keep a steady sense of rhythm and to keep the stories moving along at a stable pace. Moreover, Iambic pentameter is used throughout the poem to keep the poem flowing as the readers discover the gradual revelation of the speakerâs true nature. As the poem proceeds, it becomes clearer that the Duke is the epitome of excessive, aristocratic pride. This is accentuated by the quote: âAs if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybodyâs gift.â He is suggesting that she is inferior to him and should cherish the fact that she was allowed to marry him. The quote also carries connotations that he is extremely proud of his heritage and the last duchess didnât respect the name; she brought shame to the family. The line also emphasises how aloof he is, which is also supported by the ensuing line; âWhoâd stoop to blame?â He uses stoop to emphasis how lower class she was in comparison to himself. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaic language, analogously to âBalladâ, as exemplified by the use of the phrase âforsoothâ (âHer wit to yours, forsooth, and made excuse). âBalladâ possesses a multitude of examples of such language using phrases such as âtheeâ, âthyâ and âthouâdstâ. The two poems use this anachronistic language to invoke different sentiments. âBalladâ uses antiquated language to emphasise the âtypical fairytaleâ aspect of the poem and to engage with the readers by evoking the style of older speech â it is aiming to retain the original essence of a poem. âMy Last Duchessâ uses archaism to accentuate the aloof aspect of the Dukeâs character. Despite the fact that the Duke has murdered the last Duchess, he clearly does not acknowledge, or perhaps understand, the direct consequences of his actions. This is implied heavily by the final three lines in which he points out another piece of art, a statue of Neptune â âNotice Neptune, thoughâ¦cast in bronze for me!â The exclamation mark confirms the fact that he is as proud of a statue and as excited of this Roman god as his wife. This implies that he does not realise the consequences of his actions, simply negating her as part of his collection. This sentiment is echoed in âPorphyriaâs Loverâ, in which the madman does not realise the corollary of the murder he has so harshly committed. This is supported by the phrase, âI propped her head up as before.â This statement conveys the fact that he does not recognise the significance of his actions; treating his dead love exactly the same as his living love. The two males in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âMy Last Duchessâ may have vastly differing personalities but they both view women in a similar light. The duke and the seductive lover have a certain attitude towards women; they both see women as objects, the only difference being that they view these objects through different perspective. The Duke in âMy Last Duchessâ is a supercilious, impertinent man; his status and wealth meaning more to him than love as showcased by the line âWhoâd stoop to blame this sort of trifling?â He believes that the late Duchess was of a lower class, thus tainting their love, implying that he is more perturbed with lack of status than lack of love. He is a megalomaniac, who is jealous about his ex-wife not giving only him her attention. The speaker in "To His Coy Mistress" seems like a respectful man, the speaker is articulate - an important attribute considering he is attempting to seduce the woman. He uses his way of words to flatter her, but we then learn that he only wants her for pleasure rather than love; he adopts a false persona of love as another technique to lure her. This is exemplified by the change of tone in the first to second stanza, the second stanza assumes a threatening tenor â emphasising a void-like image to win his lady â âAnd yonder all before us lie deserts of vast eternityâ. This phrase epitomises the way in which the male attempts to manipulate the woman by conjuring up images on the topic of void if she was to reject his advances. The Duke patently feels that his last Duchess did not correspond with the expectations of an archetypal Duchess. An exemplary Duchess would be cold and calculating; avoiding affection like the plague. However, the Duchess did not, in the Dukeâs eyes, demonstrate these traits, as portrayed by this quote â âShe thanked men, - good! But thanked somehowâ¦as if she ranked my giftâ¦with anybodyâs gift.â The Duke is accusing the Duchess of being too affectionate, an attribute not welcome for a Duchess. Furthermore, the Duke surmises that the Duchess is too easily pleased, as showcased by this line in the poem â âToo easily impressed; she liked whateâer she looked on.â This illustrates (in the Dukeâs opinion) the fact that she is too âfriendlyâ and easy to please, particularly when dealing with males. However, it is extremely palpable that the Duchess is simply being friendly and the Duke is unable to understand his wifeâs warm nature. This attitude is reinforced when the Duke struggles to describe his wifeâs kind-hearted personality: âShe had a heart â how shall I say â too soon made glad?â This quote illustrates the fact that he cannot understand that aspect of his wifeâs personality; he expects much colder behaviour from his Duchess. Despite the fact that the Duke is, as he put it, âdisgustedâ with the Duchessâ behaviour. She is described as a lovely free being; freedom is portrayed in the quote: âshe liked whateâer she looked on, and her looks went everywhere.â This quote depicts the Duchess as an impulsive, free soul. However, the Duchessâ free spirit is juxtaposed by the restrictive nature of the Duke as rendered by âI choose never to stoop,â and âI gave commands.â This suggests that the Duke is attempting to restrict the Duchess from being her spontaneous self. It seems that he failed and due to his authoritarian nature, he decreed that she should be murdered. The Duchess is represented as a beautiful person, both physically so and by nature. She loved nature, as emphasised by her association with the imagery of a sunset, a âbough of cherriesâ and her âwhite muleâ. The Duchess is shown as physically attractive â âthe faint half-flush that dies along her throat,â â not dissimilarly to the ladies in âTo His Coy Mistressâ and âPorphyriaâs Loverâ. The woman is clearly beautiful in the seductive poem âTo His Coy Mistressâ as conveyed by the use of doting similes (âThou by the Indian Gangesâ side shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain.â) He uses this imagery to compare her to an exotic river whereas he is an uninteresting English river. The technique is used to lavish praise upon the beautiful woman, portraying her as glamorous and beautiful; akin to the Ganges. âPorphyriaâs Loverâ uses a beautiful lady to emphasise the surprising (and brutal) nature of the death and juxtapose the madman thus creating a sense of paranoia on behalf of the lover. The gracious beauty of Porphyria is emphasised by the repetition of her âyellow hairâ and her âsmooth white shoulderâ. Beauty is used in the two murderous poems to juxtapose the leading men thus creating a sense of wonder. Splendour is used in âTo His Coy Mistressâ to intensify the efforts and give further cause to the leading manâs attempt to seduce the lady. Alliteration is used in âMy Last Duchessâ (âdropping of the daylight.â, âyour masterâs known munificenceâ) to maintain a rhythm and perhaps for the Duke to flaunt his eloquent speaking ability. The poem is written in heroic couplets with almost continuous enjambment; this technique gives the poem a conversational style â essential for creating a rapport between the reader and the Duke. Browning uses dramatic irony to illustrate the dukeâs manipulative and callous character towards the end of the poem, as he refers to the girl he wants to marry as âmy objectâ (the Duke does not realise how much he is revealing about his personality throughout not only this quote, but the whole poem).

The Duke is the epitome of possessive, arrogant egotism.

...and that is as far as I have got. Thanks in advance.

Sorry for the lack of paragraphs, when I copied and pasted the essay from word, it seemed to get rid of them.

My Englsh poem

Emilyy — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 12:29:34 GMT

please help me with my essay and can you help finish it! thnx

From the poems you have studied,
show how the different poets portray different aspects of love.

The love poems I have studied in class all represent different types of love, such as erotic meaning passionate, sensual and sexual love, Agape and Platonic which is spiritual and being able to share deep emotions and not being a very passionate, Unrequited love, this is when you love some one, but the love is not returned, and finally possessive and destructive, this is mainly to do with jealousy and when one person totally dominates the other, itâs a very negative relationship.

Love poems often express the wish that time would stand still so that a particular moment of intense love will last forever.

John Clare wrote the first poem I studied âFirst Loveâ. He grew up working on land from the age of seven so had very little education and little access to books, but developed a great memory for the folk ballad he heard from the adults whilst working, because of bad education the language used in his poems is simple but is made effective such as âher face it bloomed like a sweat flowerâ which today would have been classed as very poor English, now we would write âher face bloomed like a sweat flowerâ. His English writing would today be equal to a possible child. This is not a very promising start for a future writer but was able to come up with many famous poems later in his life. His humble background made it impossible for him to marry the daughter of a wealthy farmer, so went through so suffered quite a bit from rejection. The poem âFirst Loveâ indicates his reaction to the devastated setback he suffered.

The poem âfirst loveâ is based on love at first sight, he begins the poem describing what the wealthy farmers daughter looks like, and describes her as a blooming flower, then he expresses how he felt when he first set eyes on her that hour. He says he turned deadly pale and his legs refused to walk away, next he writes that the blood rushes to his face and tuck is sight away.

On the second line of the poem âwith love so sudden and so sweetâ and the last line of the 2nd paragraph âAnd blood burnt round my heart.â And the 5th line of the third paragraph âI never saw so sweet a faceâ I noticed alliteration. Alliteration heightens the mood and creates vivid, memorable images it also creates a musical effect and builds suspense.

John Clare explains his unhappiness in unrequited âloveâ I could tell this was unrequited âloveâ because John Clare writes in the poem what he felt like when he set eyes on her, this is obvious that this is love, but his love is not returned by the farmers daughter. I think that the poem is an expression of the strength of first love and the pain of its rejection.

The next poem I studied was âMy Last Duchessâ written by Robert Browning who was a great poet of the Victorian Age. He eloped with, and married, Elizabeth Barret, after snatching her away from the household ruled by her farther. Always in poor health, Elizabeth died In Italy, where they had settled after their marriage. Both Elizabeth and Robert had experienced the happiness of mutual love and both poets wrote very moving love poetry, yet the two poems Iâve been given to study have little to do with love, as we understand it. âMy Last duchessâ is a good example of a dramatic monologue.

The poem is based on a murder, it begins with the very rich man talking to a servant of a mans daughter, who he would like to marry. He shows the servant around the house and ends up showing the servant a painting of his last Duchess, which he ended up murdering. I can detect very little love in this poem, apart from self-love and love of possession of the picture of his last Duchess painted by âFra Pandolfâ a very professional painter in that time and manages to boast about it, giving him more pride, from having such a great painter painting for him.

The poem has been written with couplets, for example wall, call and not and spot followed by many more, the poem also has almost continuous enjambement throughout, which give a conversational effect.

Whilst reading the poem âLast Duchessâ I noticed that the Duke never mentioned the Duchesses name, giving no individuality at all, just known as the one he had married and then had murdered. I think this love is a possessive love, he must control her, she is one of his possessions, but he finds her now more admirable once she is dead and can choose when and who to her portrait is shown to. As the poem end the next wife (Neptune) is being discussed and Iâve again noticed that the duke doesnât mention any names which straight away makes me think that the Duke is going to hold Neptune as his next possession, and that maybe Neptune will end her life the same way his last Duchess did so.

Robert Browning also wrote another poem Iâve studied, âPorphyriaâs Loverâ which is again a dramatic monologue. Porphyriaâs lover ends up strangling Porphyria with her yellow hair to preserve her in the moment of perfect love and keep her his for ever as they sit together throughout the night. This love is possessive and holds a great negativity in this relationship turning to murder perhaps form jealousy.

âTo His Coy Mistressâ was the next poem I studied written by Andrew Marvell. Andrew Marvell was born in a Yorkshire village where his farther was rector of the church. Soon after they moved to Hull. Andrew was educated at Hull Grammar School, followed by Cambridge University. It is likely Andrew never married, because of his travelling around Europe and his busy political job, although after his death in 1678 his landlady claimed to be his wife and published some of his poems. âTo His Coy Mistressâ is his most popular poem. In it, the poet attempts, through argument to win over his coy lady.

The first twenty lines of âThe Coy Mistressâ starts to talk about how much the girl in the poem means to the male character in this poem then says he will wait for ever for her to be with him, he mentions âWe would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long loveâs day.â Later on in the poem the male character suddenly decide to change his views about how much time they have to spend, he thinks if they spend any more time waiting they shall be dead, he is trying to tell her to hurry up. By the end of the poem the relationship is very rushed. I think this poem is showing erotic love, a lot of passion and lust.

The next poem was written by William Shakespeare, âShall I Compare Theeâ¦?â William Shakespeare, as well as writing plays, wrote sonnets. âShall I compare theeâ¦?â has a similar theme to many of Shakespeareâs sonnets. the poem gives us an idea of the characteristics of a really long lasting love between two people.