"Porphyria's Lover" opens with a scene taken straight from the Romantic poetry of the earlier nineteenth century. While a storm rages outdoors, giving a demonstration of nature at its most sublime, the speaker sits in a cosy cottage. This is the picture of rural simplicity--a cottage by a lake, a rosy-cheeked girl, and a roaring fire. It is portrayed as gloomy, rainy and isolated from the rest of the world. This portrays the speakers feelings as dark and suspicious of the outside world. Immediately we can see what kind of character the speaker is. When the woman enters he portrays her presence as if she were a goddess. This shows that he does adore her, but his feelings of the outside world confuse how he feels about her, because he knows she has been with other people.
In the first stanza the imagery shows she is very powerful and sexually dominate over him. This is shown through her persistence to sleep with him, as she puts her arm around his waste and makes her “smooth white shoulder bare.” He is in ore of her at the beginning but through out the poem that changes. His references to her hair give an image of her beauty, which he then uses as a weapon against her. He really sets the scene of him and this woman just staring at one another, as he debates what to do.
The second stanza is all about the imagery after she is dead. It gives a rather chilling contrast from the woman alive; powerful and dominating, to when she is dead when she is helpless and lifeless but the speaker seems to prefer her that way. She now appears almost like a doll as we picture her “rosy little head” as it droops upon his shoulder. “As a bud that holds a bee” this is an interesting image he uses. He uses this image to imply that he has captured her, so perfectly “pure and good,” just as he wants her. He almost toys with her when she is dead as if he is satisfied and happy with the way she is now, because the outside world doesn’t affect her anymore, therefore it doesn’t affect him.
The language of the poem also contributes to this poem being structured as an argument, the first stanza is imagining what it could be like if space and time were eternal, “Had we but world enough, and time.” He then would praise every part of her, “An hundred years should go to praise thine eyes,” He is willing to wait and appreciate her as long as there is some prospect of sexual fulfilment. He also indicates that he must appreciate her physically before he can love her completely. “And the last age should show your heart” he is making a point in his argument, how can he love her completely when she restricts such a big part of herself from him. “I would Love you ten years before the flood.” We know that he is implying this is an ‘if’ statement because of the way he says, “I would” rather than “I will.” This is what makes this poem different from other love lyrics. The first stanza’s language is like a love lyric which makes you believe it is one. But this poem is a parody of love lyrics suggesting that love poems are merely men attempting to woo woman. And at the end it is all for one thing. He is satirising a genre. “The conversion of the Jews” indicates that he will love her until the end of the world, because at that point no Jew would convert.
The second stanza explains how we are not eternal, “times winged chariot hurrying near,” the lover explains how we are not eternal and how time is limited. He feels that when she is dead he will never see her again “Thy beauty shall no more be found.” The second stanza is basically explaining the simplicity of life and the reality of love. He implies that love lyrics are merely an attempt to woo a woman and that is all they are. He is suggesting that it is a waste of time because death is “hurrying near.”
The third stanza concludes that life and time are limited, “therefore” they should give into temptation, “tear our pleasures with rough strife.” The language has changed from referring to space and time, to addressing them. His conclusion is that they should live fully together. “Thus we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.” He is basically making the assumption that she will have given into him and that although they cannot stop the clock from ticking, they will live so time will have to catch up with them because they will be living every second as best they can and not wasting valuable time as she holds on to “that long preserved virginity.”
Ostensibly the speaker appears to be in love from the first reading, but then we discover he is more in lust. He wants this woman sexually. This central focus point of his sexual passion, makes him beg her not to put off sexual union. He eloquently points out that the cares of the moment do not matter as time is slowly absorbing them both, as it does all things.
‘Porphyria’s Lover’ is a dramatic monologue-a fictional speech presented as the musings of a speaker who is separate from the poet. Like most of Browning's other dramatic monologues, this one captures a moment after a main event or action.
The poem shows what love can sometimes do to people. First in the poem, the speaker describes feelings of somewhat fear of heartache or heartbreak. The speaker is at first hesitant, but then easily swayed by intimate actions of Porphyria, such as those shown in lines 17 through 21. "And made her smooth white shoulder bare And all her yellow hair displaced, And, stooping, made my cheek lie there, And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair, Murmuring how she loved me" Then, the speaker feels joy and pride when Porphyria tells him she loves him. Next, Browning shows a psychotic, obsessive effect of love when the speaker decides to kill Porphyria because he feels he must freeze time in order to keep that moment when he realizes she "worships" him.
In the first stanza the speaker is very dramatic and dark about his feelings. We do not know at first what he is bitter about but when he uses words like “glided” to describe phorphyria’s entrance, and how she “shut the cold out and the storm” his feelings about her become more obvious, he is clearly passionate about this woman. He makes a small indication that he thinks she wants him like he wants her by saying “she too weak for all her heart’s endeavour” this is the first sign to show what he is going to do, and he, in his own mind is trying to justify it by implying she is too weak to give in to her hearts desires, s he will do it for her. He speaks very delicately when he is killing her, which is very unusual. “I round three times her little throat” he is acting as if he is doing something nice, as if he is doing her a favour. The language “As a bud that holds a bee” relates to nature and simplicity, which relates to pureness, which is how he wants to preserve her. He uses semi-colons in this poem every time he concludes something. “she was mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good: I found a thing to do” at this point in time he wants to possess her as his own. The semi colon represents his conclusion to his problems with her. The second semi-colon concludes Porphyria’s love. “Porphyria’s love: she guessed not how Her darling one wish would be heard.” He concludes with the illusion that he has down her a favour.
In ‘To His coy Mistress’ the lover is constantly undermining the woman’s reasoning for not wanting to sleep with him. The poem is formed in an argument, which is set out in the form of three stanzas, which is according to scholastic Syllogism. The first stanza and second stanza’s are premises, and the third stanza is a conclusion. the format of this is shown through; first stanza: “if we had,” second stanza: “but,” third stanza: “therefore.” By pulling out words from each stanza you can see how the poem has been structured to form an argument. The first stanza is long, attempting to portray eternal love. The second stanza is short, attempting to portray the life of the Woman. The tempo in the last part picks up as it is concluding his argument, it is a strong, solid stanza attempting to portray some immediately to finally sway the woman and successfully woo her.
In ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ the poem is structured with two main stanzas. The first stanza is very large; as it has to show both the affect the woman has on the speaker, and the speaker’s feelings about her. And it also arouses his ideas of killing her, which need to be subtly brought up. You only become fully aware of his psychotic personality at the end of the first stanza, when we realise what he is doing and realise this is what he has been debating throughout the poem.
The tone through out ‘To his coy mistress’ changes. In the first stanza ostensibly he is flattering her, but when you read through it again you pick up on how his flattery is measured in time, “Two hundred to adore each breast" here the speaker sounds as though he might be wearing a sly smile. He is flattering his lover to the point of exaggeration, and he is careful to point out that he would spend twice as much time adoring her breasts than he would spend on her eyes and forehead. The tone in this section is thus insincere and vulgar. The second section of the poem alters the tone introduced in the first section of the poem through imagery associated with decomposition "worms,” “dust,” and “ashes" These words firmly establish the chilling reality of death. The tone here is sincere and melancholic, and its effect on the overall tone is enduring The tone in this final section, which has an increasing tempo refers to "fires,” “devour,” and “tear" These words emphasize the tone, but they have clearly been affected by the midsection’s melancholy tone.
In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ Browning takes on a rather fearful and ominous tone as he portrays a manic, obsessive, psychotic and even murderous lover. The tone in the poem goes from dark and thorough when she is not there, to less dark yet more thorough. When she is dead the poem takes on a completely different tone, it is released and looses all the tension it had before.
The speaker in ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a beautiful young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire. She embraces the speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. This contrasts with ‘To His Coy Mistress’ where the speaker is getting no attention from the woman.
In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ the speaker desires more sexual intercourse with this woman, he wants to possess her wholly to himself. In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the speaker demands sexual intercourse with the woman, this shows an important difference between the two speakers.
Both speakers show very macho, masculine motives. The lover in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ desires to ‘devour’ this woman, and the lover in ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ He wants to possess her. They each want to dominate the woman, as if she were an object. They show two sides of men, one side that undermines a woman and feels they are superior to the woman and the side, which is very insecure, and the women seem to have power and control over them. ‘Phorphyria’s lover’ especially shows the contrast between the insecurity of a man, who feels and portrays a woman as having more power over him with the satisfaction he feels when he gains control by killing her.
The essential comparisons between the two poems are their references to time and death. In ‘To his coy mistress’ time is something, which is limited, he uses this as a reason not to love her like she might want to be loved, but to demand immediate sexual relations because of their lack of time.
In ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ time is what the lover wants to capture. There is a point in the poem when he realises she ‘worships’ him, but it is a momentary thing and the lover wants to capture that moment.
Both speakers suggest time is against them, but in different ways. In ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ the speaker wants to stop time, and preserve a moment when he feels this woman is his. ‘In His Coy Mistress’ the speaker suggests that time is against them in the sense that both his patience and time itself will run out and she will have preserved her virginity for no reason. The lover in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ shows death as the end. And after death he will never see ‘His Coy Mistress’ again, whereas in ‘Porphiria’s Lover’ death is merely the beginning.
