The rhythm in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is ababb however in ‘My Last Duchess’ it is abab.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ tells the story of a man who obsesses over his lover (Porphyria) who is of a higher class than him. Eventually this leads to him killing her to make her his forever.
“And, stooping”, this is ambiguous and could mean that she is stooping to someone of a lower class or that she is physically stooping to his level. This along with “glided in Porphyria” indicates that Porphyria is from a higher class than her lover.
Porphyria is also a married woman. “From pride, and vainer ties dissever” this reveals that Porphyria is tied to another relationship and is married to an upper class man. This also implies that Porphyria is too proud to let people know about her secret relationship with a lower class man of which is the speaker in the poem.
“And give herself to me forever” indicates that Porphyria’s lover is obsessive and implies that something important is going to happen next.
Porphyria’s lover is not completely mad. “But passion sometimes would prevail” reinforces the fact that it was a moment of passion that led to him killing Porphyria as he did not want that passion to end.
“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: … So, she was come through wind and rain” presents that Porphyria worships her lover in the poem and travelled through really bad weather just to be with him.
After Porphyria’s lover kills her he beliefs that her has not committed a sin in Gods eyes. “And yet God has not said a word!” reveals this and is the most shocking line in the poem
The title of the poem is ambiguous as Porphyria is the woman in the poem and Porphyria is also a rare blood disease which leads to insanity. This is relevant to the poem as Porphyria’s lover eventually goes insane and kills her.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is written in past tense as Porphyria lays dead in her lovers arms when the poem begins.
‘My Last Duchess’ differs as it is written in the present tense.
‘My Last Duchess’ tells the story of a Duke who is speaking to an envoy about his last duchess. I believe the Duke in the poem is Alfonso 2 who was the Duke of Ferrara from 1533 to 1598.
When the Duke is talking to the envoy about the painting of his last duchess he describes her as a thing of beauty, “I call that piece a wonder, now… that pictured countenance”. This illustrated the fact that he see’s his wife as beautiful now but didn’t when she was alive due to the fact that he believed she was sleeping with other men. “Twas not her husbands presence only, called that spot of joy into the duchesses cheek… she thanked men”, this exposes the fact that the Duke did not trust the Duchess when she was alive and believed she was being disloyal.
The Duke was annoyed and angry that she was supposedly being disloyal to him and therefore hired someone to kill her.
“This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”.
This reinforces that the Duke killed the Duchess and that he gave commands as he chooses never to stoop.