My Last Duchess
Poet
ROBERT BROWNING
Context
This poem shares similarities with the historical figure, Duke of Ferrara.
Supposedly, he was dissatisfied with his wife, so he killed her and remarried.
Plot
- The poem is about a Duke talking to a messenger who is there to help arrange his next marriage.
- The Duke shows off his wealth and status by making reference to his paintings and his reputation. He explains the problem he had with his disrespectful wife; who was very flirtatious.
- The patriarchal Duke is extremely controlling over his former wife, the messenger and the reader too.
Form
- Dramatic monologue
- Iambic pentameter
- 10 syllables: five stressed and five unstressed
- Caesura
- Pauses reflect the natural breaks in the conversation
- Enjambment
- Lines and ideas running into another, as would in conversation
Structure
- One stanza
- Rhyming couplets
Language
- Direct address
- Rhetorical question
- Metaphor
- Alliteration
Tone
- Pride
- Anger
- Fear
Themes
- Power of humans
- Power of art
- Power of memory
- Love and relationship
- First person experience