Robert Browning Poetry

1. Rhythm

1.1. 1. Trochee: The second syllable is stressed

1.2. 2. Trochee

1.3. 3. Irregularly stressed pentameter lines, mainly iambic.

2. Poetic devices

2.1. 1. The poem has very notable rhymes; however, within it the sentences do not end when the verses do. Thus, the rhythm may vary. It has only one stanza. It sometimes may sound as a narration.

2.2. 2. Nine eight-line stanzas, nonverbal sounds and colloquial language. It makes use of metaphors and symbolisms.

2.3. 3. The rhyme makes an echo on the previous lines, specially on the third one. The poem is full of symbolisms

3. They are Victorian because...

3.1. The three poems are monologues that protray a realistic story and try to reach the reader´s feelings by giving lots of symbolisms. Also, the poems struggle with religion and morality (this later of women). Moreover, the last poem is settled in a Medieval time, that is an important characteristic of victorian poetry.

4. Feeling

4.1. 1. It gives a sense of mistery, as if something is going to happen because as the poems goes on, the description of the Duchess seems to be done with anger and contempt.

4.2. 2. In some way, the poem makes the reader reflect on the duality of every person and how humans are used to show their best faces instead of the true ones that can be not as "right" as they seem.

4.3. 3. The poem is written as a narration or monologue in which the reader figures out death must be the only end, so it makes the reader feel anxious.

5. Poems

5.1. 1. My Last Duchess

5.2. 2. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

5.3. 3. Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

6. Rhyme

6.1. 1. Full and half rhyme / Rhyming pentameter lines / Couplet

6.2. 2. Traditional rhyme / Half rhyme

6.3. 3. Six-line rhyme schemed like: ABBAAB