Robert Browning Research Paper

There are a number of different techniques used in poetry to portray or highlight a message within a poets writing. Poets use poetry to explore a range of different themes and to express their individual opinions or views on a topic. However there is one idea that is commonly mentioned through a number of different poems over thousands of years. This is the idea of love and how at times it can be so great yet also so difficult. Robert Browning is a poet that tends to use a number of different techniques in his poems to explore the theme of love. He expresses this theme through his poems My Last Dutches, Porphyria’s Lover and Two in the Campagna. He uses techniques such as allusion, euphony, hyperbole and personification to highlight and identify
the theme of love, that is flawed and that it will forever be imperfect as long as we ourselves are imperfect.
Allusion is the technique of referring to a person, historical event, work of art or biblical/mythological character or person in place of someone else.
The technique is frequently used throughout poems as it assists the reader to form an image through association and be able to put what the poet is saying into perspective. Browning uses this technique well in his poem My Last Dutchess to show how love is not always enough and that is normally a hidden agenda. It also shows how love in some cases can be in other forms rather than beauty. Throughout the poem Browning portrays the man as having felt some love for his deceased wife; however, through the last three lines of his poem, “Notice Neptune though, Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!”, he uses allusion to refer to himself (the protagonist) as Neptune and his new wife as the seahorse. This shows that he was never truly in love with the woman nor will be in love with his new wife, he only wanted power over them. This demonstrates how the love of power in this case was more important than the love he could have for an individual. Browning does this to express and highlight the thought that love can be flawed and is often used to
dominate.
In the poem Porphyria’s Lover, Browning uses two main techniques to explore the theme of love and its effects. He uses hyperbole, the technique of extreme exaggeration for effect. This is clearly showed through the lines “And all her yellow hair displaced, And, stooping, made my check lie there, And spread, o’er all, her yellow hair, Murmuring how she loved me”. This indicates that the woman’s hair was so long that it could wrap both of them in it to almost make a cocoon for the both of them. Browning exaggerates the length of the hair to make it appear as if they were completely in love and united together. He also uses euphony, the technique of placing a series of soft and pleasant sounds together to provide a sense that all is well and harmonious within the poem. This is demonstrated through the lines “her cheek once more Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss: I propped her head up as before Only, this time my shoulder bore Her head”. Browning uses euphony specifically in this part of the poem where the man is talking about killing the woman to demonstrate to us that from the man’s perspective what he had done was right and beautiful because he loved her so much. He specifically uses this technique to portray the theme of love and how it can drive us psychotic.
Personification is the technique of giving life to an inanimate object, animals or ideas. It is used to help the reader create a better image or idea of the message the poet is trying to express. Browning uses this throughout his poem Two in the Campagna. He uses nature as a symbol for love as it is open, perfect, unashamed and pure. He uses personification through the lines “Rome’s ghost since her decease”, “such primal naked forms of flowers” and “as earth lies bare to heaven above” to demonstrate how love can change and die and that it is not eternal. He uses personification to give love human qualities to communicate how love is flawed just as we ourselves are flawed.
Poets like Browning, use poetry to express a range of different themes. Love is a theme that is commonly used throughout poetry as there are a number of different views and emotions behind it. To specifically highlight or communicate a message within a poem various techniques are used for a number of different effects. Browning mainly demonstrates this through his poems My Last Dutches, Porphyria’s Lover and Two in the Campagna. He uses techniques such as allusion, euphony, hyperbole and personification to portray the theme of love and its flaws. He, through these techniques, is able to communicate the message that love will forever be flawed as long as we ourselves are flawed.