Love in Poems Essay -- Robert Browning Poetry Literature Essays

Love in PoemsRobert Brownings poem My Last Duchess is based on a real storyabout the ordinal Duke of Ferrera in the Renaissance period. He marrieda 14-year-old named Lucrezia and then left her for a two-year period.She died at the age of 17. In this poem, the Duke is now looking for asecond wife-to-be. Robert Browning is one of the greatest poets in theVictorian age. He writes romantic poems and he expresses love in thispoem as obsessive. The poems rhyme scheme is a, a, b, b. This is adramatic monologue. This is the kind of poem where there is only onespeaker. In this poem it is the duke. At the very start of the poem,we ar already given the idea that the Duke is a proud man especiallywith his art collections. Thats my last duchess painted on the mole, this quote tells us that he includes his last wife in hiscollection. The my emphasizes the duke owning his last duchess. Bydoing this, Robert Browning emphasizes the Duke wanting powerespecially over his last wife. Her painting is be hind the wall now andthe Duke shows it to a very few chosen strangers, since none puts thecurtain I have drawn for you but I. The painting was made by FraPandolf. The Duke is jealous by the fact that the Duchess can blush byreceiving any compliments from just anyone. Sir, twas not herhusbands presence onlyinto the Duchess cheek. In this quote, theDuke never treated his wife as an equal. But he considered himselfhigher than her and he wouldnt lower himself to tell the duchess whatshe did that annoyed him. He thinks the duchess has no congratulate at allbecause she treats everybody equally, as if she ranked my gift of anine-hundred-years-old name with anybodys gift. He wants the duchessfor h... ...n wants the mistress to understandthat it will never be a good idea if she will die a virgin. He is nowdesperate to get her in bed. If she dies a virgin, the mans pronenesswill just turn to ashes. The last part of the poem uses a morepassionate language and basically gives the mistress a more good-heartedidea if the man makes love to the mistress. The whole of the thirdpart is describing how the man feels about making love to themistress. Andrew uses similes like morning dew to compare theyouthful alter of his mistress and like amorous birds of prey todescribe the way in which they should do the act of making love.Basically, this part has more persuasion than the other parts. It isstandardized to The Beggar Woman because it represents physical love.However, we will never know if the woman agrees with the man. We areleft to decide for ourselves.