A Level English Language and Literature Poetry Revision

A Level English Language and Literature Poetry Revision Robert Browning

Robert Browning is famous for his poetry, especially for his dramatic monologues.

My Last Duchess SUMMARY: a Duke who has recently had his wife, the duchess, killed for her ‘spot of joy’ and lack of propriety. He is patron of the arts. FORM: • Dramatic monologue – helps to exploit gap between what narrator wants us to know and the more implicit meanings. • First person narrator – cold, selfish, arrogant, domineering STRUCTURE: • Iambic pentameter in rhyming couplets – like speech, natural rhythm • Enjambment used to accentuate rhythm of real speech • Lack of stanzas highlight instability of the narrator. LANGUAGE: • Use of rhetorical questions to persuade the reader. • Repetition of ‘as if alive’ and ‘stoop’ • ‘Spot of joy’ is the cause of the duchess’ downfall • Detached, emotionless language to highlight narrator’s ruthless power. • Name dropping to show power –allusions to art and Neptune. SETTING: • ‘FERRARA’, Italian, Renaissance, art appreciation, time frame nonespecific but relatively short -

Porphyria’s Lover SUMMARY: Porphyria’s Lover unfolds through recounting of events of 1 night, culminating in murder of Porphyria by speaker FORM: • Dramatic monologue • 1 st person retrospective– recounts events of night of murder STRUCTURE: • ABABB rhyme scheme and single stanza suggests instability of narrator • Anaphora – repetitive structures also highlight instability. • Cadence (rhythm) of the poem mimics real speech • Caesura creates dramatic effect ‘And strangled her. ’ (line 41) • Begins like romantic poetry, changes – more sensual and then shocking LANGUAGE: • Pathetic fallacy creates setting &atmosphere in opening of poem • Metaphorical language • Alliteration of plosives – harsh sounds prepare reader for what is to come. SETTING: • cottage – suggests working class; illicit sex? Victorian concerns about sex

The Laboratory SUMMARY: woman at a laboratory watching the apothecary create a poison to kill her love rival FORM: • Dramatic monologue • Narrative voice of jealous woman, listener the apothecary STRUCTURE: • Rhyming couplets and anapestic tetrameter • Quatrains • interesting LANGUAGE: • glass mask/smoke – concealing, sinister • Language of poison – yet beautiful, suggesting pleasure in death • Delicate and beautiful jewellery used to deliver death – interesting contrast • Archaic (devils’-smithy’, ‘ SETTING: • ‘ancien regime’, ‘Kings’ – all connect to court of Louis 14 th (C 17 th France); poisonings scandal, corrupt court with illicit sex and jealousies that go with this’ archaic language helps create setting as do names of victims