Porphyria's Lover: Robert Browning

'The sullen wind was soon awake' - Pathetic fallacy creates a threatening, ominous atmosphere.
She shut the cold out and the storm, and kneeled and made the cheerless grate blaze up, and all the cottage warm'. - Porphyria seems to be a powerful, positive person in the speakers life. Her actions contrast with the miserable weather.
'When glided in Porphyria' - this description makes Porphyria almost seem magical.
'And made her smooth white shoulder bare, and all her yellow hair displaced'. - Repetition of 'and' emphasises the calm way he's counting the events leading up to her murder.
1. Female sexuality was repressed in Victorian times, but Porphyria is openly flaunting hers.
'From pride, and vainer ties dissever' - The narrator is conscious of of Porphyria's lack of commitment to him. She may be from a higher social class than him so her family may not approve of the relationship.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair' - The repetition of mine is disturbing and suspicious - it emphasises how he wants to possess her.
1. 'That moment' highlights how he wants to freeze this perfect moment
'I wound three times around her little throat around, and strangled her.' - the caesura makes the reader pause and emphasises the sudden and final nature of this action. Also, the description of the murder is shocking to the reader because it's very unexpected and he acts so normal about it - there's also no change in rhythm.
'No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain' - we question how true this really is, and it shows how unstable the narrator is & how he doesn't realise the reality.
'As a shut bud that holds a bee, I warily oped her lids' - the simile here suggests that he is afraid of whether she is still going to be in that moment of perfection or if she is actually just dead.
1. This also highlights how he is still entranced by her beauty, and the shut bud represents how things are at an end or he's not allowed her to blossom fully.
'Only, this time my shoulder bore her head, which droops upon it still' - the roles are now reversed compared to the start of the poem, he is now in control of her and we sense a hint of pride here from the narrator as he is now able to finally control Porphyria.
1. The flower imagery here links back to the bud - she is now wilting and is lifeless. It also reflects her beauty, but also depicts the speakers foolishness - flowers droop just as this perfect moment will not last.
'So glad it has its utmost will' - He describes her as 'it' which shows she's just an object to him now.
'And yet God has not said a word!' - Ambiguity; he could be surprised that he has not been punished by God, or he doesn't believe that he has committed a sin at all. or God thinks that what he has done is right/ good which highlights how unstable he is.
Form - This poem is a dramatic monologue. The irregular rhyme scheme (ABABB) and use of enjambment suggests that the speaker is unstable and could highlight he's in a hurry to freeze his perfect 'moment' with Porphyria. Porphyria has no voice in the poem - the speaker projects his own thoughts and feelings onto her in life and in death.
1. Language of Possession - The speaker wants Porphyria to belong to him forever, but he believes that her 'pride' and 'vainer ties' (possibly meaning her higher social status) are stopping her from being with him. He is desperate to possess her, and in death she becomes her object.
Structure - Events in the poem mirror each other. In the first half of the poem, Porphyria is active and dominant while her lover is passive, which is shown by the way she rests his head on her shoulder. These positions are reversed when the speaker kills her - he puts her head on his shoulder.
1. Language of love and violence - The speaker combines love and violence to reflect the troubled and destructive nature of his love - e.g 'heart fit to break' and 'burning kiss'.

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Porphyria's Lover: Robert Browning

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	Created by Aliyah Huggins over 7 years ago