‘Do you come to bend me to your will, as a conqueror to the vanquished.’ Here the woman is questioning her lover whether he has come to mould her to his obligations as the ruler of the defeated. We can clearly see that the poem is taking place in the present tense to show the scene in the beginning of a relationship.
I shall now discuss the language of the poems; both poems are based on the theme of love and relationships.
In ‘My Last Duchess’ the language is set out to be telling a story of what happened between two lovers. The language is quits complex and hard to figure out what happens in the poem. The Duke at the beginning of the poem admires his wife, when talking about a painting that has been painted of her, by an artist, ‘ That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall’, the admiration, ‘ That piece of wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands’.
The Duke thinks he does a lot for his Duchess and feels it is wrong for what she has done to him, winning the admiration by other men. He is disgusted by her behavior, and feels that he should not stoop and lower himself to talk to his Duchess about other men, ‘ – E’en then would be stooping; and I choose Never to stoop’. He thinks even if he did talk to her about things like that she would just deny it, ‘ Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse’.
‘A Woman To Her Lover’, is a four – versed poem, in which the verses have an unequal number of lines. The words in the poem are more important than the structure, it his her free mind talking of what she feels about these subject issues. Her womanhood is reflected. There is a repetition of a few beginning lines such as, ‘Or if you think…’ These words have been iterated several times in the poem to symbolize the different ways in which the woman tries to think from the lover’s perspective and later strongly express her ideas on that viewpoint. Some of the ways, which the woman has used her imagination to think from the man’s perspective, are mainly power of images and religion images.
‘Or if you think to wed with one from heaven sent’, ‘Whose every deed and word is golden’, ‘A wingless angel who can do no wrong’. You can notice that the speaker has diverted from the theme of the first stanza, power of images to the use of power of religious images and has used a variety of poetic techniques to expose the subject matter.
In the first verse of the poem she makes it quite clear that she will not marry the man if he thinks that by entering into the marriage she will assume the role of some sort of servant, slave or housewife, who will clean, tidy and provide him with children. If that is what he wants she will no longer have him, she uses very straight forward language to express her views on this subject mater, ‘ No servant will I be If that be what I you ask, ‘ O lover I refuse you’.
Verse two of the poem show the poet not wanting her lover if he is going to put her on some sort of pedestal for worship. She does not want to be seen as some sort of possession for the man, nor does she want to be viewed and considered simply for her appearance, ‘ Go! – I am no doll to dress and sit for feeble worship’. The use of alliteration is also used in that line, ‘ doll to dress’. She expresses in her language that she wants she be respected as an equal – someone who has views on things, rights and principles. If he does not accept that and does not want that he is a ‘fool’.
In the third verse, the language is expressed as real passion. There is repetition of the word, ‘Your’.
The last stanza is quite radical, it is embroidered to make it full, it is a rounding up of everything and shows she has got her standards. The last stanza depicts her whole marriage and the excessive language works. The final verse starts with ‘But’ which is almost as if she can marry safely. She wants this marriage to be one of equals – which they become ‘comrade, friend, and mate’ and that and that they will live out their lives during the good and bad times. If he can agree to that then she will marry him in ‘co-equal love’.
There is a logical structure to the poem and a great sense of passion and emotion.
I think that both poems have a nice feel to them. They express there feelings very well, and one thing they both have in common is that they both demand things from their lovers. ‘A Woman To Her Lover’ has a change to the poem in the end verse; she begins to compromise in the end and shows that she has got her standards. ‘My Last Duchess’ however, is a story telling poem about a Duke and his Lovers, in the end it seems he goes through many lovers, as he is not satisfied with ones that he has previously had. At the end of the poem, it describes how if the Duke’s lover is not up to his standards he has her executed, which is harsh.
Browning is the opposite to Walsh; Walsh wants nice qualities whereas Browning is horrible.