My Last Duchess

I. Author
ROBERT BROWNING Robert Browning is the author of the poem “my last duchess”. He is a son of Robert Browning, a Bank of England clerk, and Sarah Anna Wiedemann, of Scottish-German descent, Browning received little formal education. His learning was gleaned mainly from his Father's library at home in Camberwell, South London, where he learnt something, with his Father's help, of Latin and Greek. Though he attended lectures at the University of London in 1828, Browning left after only one session. Browning lived with his parents in London until his marriage of 1846. After the secretly held marriage to Elizabeth Barrett in 1846, Browning and wife travelled to Italy where they were, apart from brief holidays in France and England, to spend most of their married life together. In 1849 the couple had a son, Robert 'Pen' Browning, and it was Elizabeth who, during this time, was most productive. After her death in 1861, Browning returned to England with his son, where he achieved popular acclaim for his Dramatis Personae and The Ring and the Book.

He spent the remainder of his life, excepting holidays in France, Scotland, Italy and Switzerland, in London where he wrote a number of dramatic poems. He died in Venice whilst holidaying in 1889 and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
AMY LOWELL -Amy Lowell the daughter of wealthy parents, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1874. After being privately educated Lowell travelled widely before settling in New York City. Her first volume of poems, A Dome of Many Coloured Glass was published in 1912. Rebelling against her respectable upbringing, Lowell shocked society by smoking large black cigars. Lowell also held radical political views and in 1914 and began having her work published in The Masses, a socialist journal edited by Floyd Dell and Max Eastman. A supporter of modern poetry, Lowell edited an annual anthology of imagist poets during the First World War. This period also saw the publication of Lowell's second volume of verse, Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914) and a critical study, Six French Poets (1915). This was followed by Men, Women and Ghosts (1916), Tendencies in Modern American Poetry (1917) and Pictures of the Floating World (1919).Amy Lowell died in 1925.

II. Times and Milieu
III. Summary MY LAST DUCHESS -The Duke of Ferrara is negotiating with a servant for the hand of a count’s daughter in marriage. During the negotiations, the Duke takes the servant upstairs into his private art gallery and shows him several of the objects in his collection.

The first of these objects is a portrait of his "last" or former duchess, painted directly on one of the walls of the gallery by a friar named Pandolf. The Duke keeps this portrait behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw. While the servant sits on a bench looking at the portrait, the Duke describes the circumstances in which it was painted and the fate of his unfortunate former wife.

Apparently the Duchess was easily pleased: she smiled at everything, and seemed just as happy when someone brought her a branch of cherries as she did when the Duke decided to marry her. She also blushed easily. The Duchess’s genial nature was enough to throw the Duke into a jealous, psychopathic rage, and he "gave commands" (45) that meant "all smiles stopped together". We’re guessing this means he had her killed although it’s possible that he had her shut up somewhere, such as in a convent. But its way more exciting if you interpret it as murder and most critics do.

After telling this story to the servant of the family, who might provide his next bride, the Duke takes him back downstairs to continue their business. On the way out, the Duke points out one more of his favorite art objects: a bronze statue of Neptune taming a seahorse, thought a rarety,which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for him.
PATTERNS
-
IV. Analysis
Form
-Dramatic lyric( it has fictional characters who act out a scene.)

-Browning’s poem is written with senseless line breaks .This creates a feeling of disorder that lends itself to the idea that these are not thought out poems in perfect form ,but rather an outpouring of emotions.

Content/themes
-
Literary Merits:
Intellectual Value
-
Emotional Value
Spiritual Value
Artistry and style

My Last Duchess Pattern -Dramatic monologue -dramatic monologue -Rhymed iambic pentameter -uses precise wording -uses the run-on line or enjambment to convey the meaning of the poem

Universality
Permanence