"Porphyria's Lover" is one of many poems by Robert Browning. In this poem a woman named Porphyria is killed by her lover. This man's obsession with Porphyria led him to murder. Through vocabulary, imagery and situation Browning shows the reader the mind of an obsessed man.
             Imagery in a poem helps the reader visualize the surroundings and helps the reader infer the main events in a poem. The opening lines in the poem show a dark dismal night. "The rain set early in tonight,/The sullen wind was soon awake,/It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/And did its worst to vex the lake:/I listened with heart fit to break." This helps the reader think of a dark evening and a man sitting impatiently for his lover.
             Browning gives Porphyria power by saying, "She shut the cold out and the storm,/And kneeled and made the cheerless grate/Blaze up, and all the cottage warm." The reader can sense that this woman holds some power over her lover. She seems to take care of him. This sets up a reason why the speaker is obsessed with Porphyria.
             Porphyria is obviously of a higher rank in society by her use of the words "pride and vanity." This "rank" gives her obvious power. Porphyria's power is stopped when she tells him why she came. "Murmuring how she loved me--she/Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor/ To set its struggling passion free/From pride, and vainer ties dissever,/And give herself to me forever." This is Porphyria's weak attempt at a break-up. By "murmuring" she loses the pride she talks of. One can infer that she had come to him from a party when the speaker says "tonight's gay feast." By breaking-up with him she could possibly enjoy her evening with another man. Porphyria knows that he needs her to care for him but does not want that kind of life anymore. She tries to make this break-up less painful for her lover b...