My Last Duchess by Robert Browning: Written in the Style of a Dramatic Monologue
Robert Browning's Poem My Last Duchess is written in the style of a dramatic monologue. This means that the narrator in the poem speaks throughout the poem and narrates a story to this audience or his "guest'. This style of poetry uses a number of literary devices to accomplish its meaning and intention and to create an artistic unity. One technique that the poet uses to convey the meaning of the poem is the run-on line or enjambment. This refers to the way in which sentences and phrases do not need to come to a meaningful conclusion at the end of a line. This relates to and enhances the style of the poem and the conversational tone of the narrative. Another aspect that should be noted in terms of the literary techniques used in the poem is the use of rhyme. Browning uses Iambic pentameter with rhyming couplets. The rhyme scheme in the poem acts as an undercurrent which emphasizes aspects of the meaning and themes of this poem. Literary devices cannot be separated from the intension or meaning of the poem. They are there to support and promote the central themes and ideas that are expressed in the work. Therefore an analysis of the poem will include the ways that these and other literary devices function to promote meaning.
(My Last Duchess) However she was not well educated and her family and lineage was not of a long and established line, as was the Duke's family. Therefore the possibility exists that the Duke, the narrator in this poem, considered her to be beneath him in a social sense. It is implied that the Duke had his "last Duchess" removed or killed. The focus in the poem in fact shifts from a description of the Duchess to a view of the psychology and underlying thoughts of the Duke. as if she rankedMy gift of a nine-hundred-years-old nameWith anybody's giftThe above lines form the crux of the analysis of the narrator's character. The natural vivacity and joy in the character of the Duchess is seen in a different light by the narrator. The words " too soon" caries a weight of meaning in that it suggest that she was too obvious or spontaneous in her nature and did not have that aristocratic and pretentious reserve that the Duke prefers. He is obviously an aristocrat who is used to having all the attention and power and cannot abide the thought that his wife should find things outside of himself to be pleasant and appealing. The title of the poem also becomes more ominous if we bear in mind the intention and theme of the poem as a whole. It is also important to note the way in which the informal and conversational style of phrasing and rhyme is used by the poet to subtly imply the Dukes' underlying prejudices. Note as well how the rhyming couplets in the above lines add a rhythmic impetus to the words spoken by the Duke.
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