“Fra Pandolf's hands worked busily all day and there she stands”
The lines tell us that the duchess and the artist had perhaps spent a day together and other lines rise the suspicion of an affair by telling us that the duchess is blushing in the painting even thought the duke himself was not there and that she is revealing herself in the painting to the artist. Lines 13-17 tell us this:
“Sir, 'twas not her husband's presence only, called that spot of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps Fra Pandolf chanced to say 'Her mantle laps over my lady's wrist too much,' ”
The duke is irritated by the way his wife treats other men compared to himself (as shown in lines 31-34), and continues to do so when asked not to. We know he is irritated by this when, in lines 34-43, he says the following:
“Who'd stoop to blame this sort of trifling? Even had you skill in speech – (which I have not) – to make your will quite clear to such an one, and say, 'Just this or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, or exceed the mark' – and if she let herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set the her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, e'en then would be some stooping; and I choose never to stoop,”
The way men control women and women control men is also shown in these lines. A sinister edge to the poem is shown when the duke says:
“I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together.”
This suggests to us the duke may have done something physical to stop his wife's behaviour. He may have possibly killed or abused her. This is also telling us how men may have sometimes treated women during the 16th century. Throughout the poem the duke is talking to a representative for the Count Of Tyrol, who is promoting a potential new wife to the duke, as we are told in lines 49-53:
“The count your master's unknown munificence is ample warrant that no Just pretence of mine for dowry will be disallowed; though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed at starting, is my object.”
The fact that the duke is willing to marry again suggests to us that he had no real feelings towards his last wife and the way that a new wife is being 'promoted' bye this agent, tells us that women were treated as objects to be collected. The sinister thing about him wanting to marry again is that he may have killed his last wife and now wants a new one showing us the duke perhaps has women for show.
The duke shows some love towards his last wife by having a painting of her done, however the painting is just a valued possession, possibly showing a resemblance to the way he felt about his wife. He seems to value this painting higher than the flesh and blood of his wife as he refers to it as 'a wonder' in line 3. Maybe the duke likes the painting so much as it gives him ultimate control over his dead wife by having a curtain over it, allowing him to control who sees her and when. This control he enjoys is significant to the duke as he could not control his wife when she was alive. This is evidence of the duke seeing women as objects to be controlled by him, as well as the fact that he 'gave commands' and he has a statue of Neptune taming a sea horse, possibly to resemble the way the duke has eventually tamed his wife. The duke showing his guest this Neptune figure is significant as he possibly uses it show that he will always get control over his women.
The way that this poem is narrative is effective as it turns it into the duke telling his story of how he won control over his last wife. There is an absence of any obvious figures of speech in the poem as it makes the duke's description to the agent more realistic.
A young man is the narrator of the poem “to His Coy Mistress”, in which the man is trying to get a coy woman to sleep with him by using various figures of speech to create images, which are sometimes pleasant or horrific, in order to persuade her.
The first four lines show us an image of time which are saying that if there was time, then the 'playing hard to get' would be no problem. The lines which create this image of time are:
“Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way to walk and pass our long love's day.”
The poet refers to the lack of time available throughout the poem to try and speed things up. Another instance of this time reference is in lines 7-10. The poet is saying that he would love the woman if he had the time and that she could refuse until the conversion of the Jews. These lines are using a biblical reference to say that if she keeps on refusing him, it will never happen at all:
“I would love you ten years before the flood, and you should, if you please, refuse till the conversion of the Jews.”
The first metaphor used in the poem is sexual and shows the more light-hearted side to the poem, as compared to the sinister sides of the other. The metaphor, in lines 11-12, is used to create another image for the young, female recipient:
“My vegetable love should grow, vaster than empires, and more slow.”
The poet suggests he will worship his lover's body by, again, using references to time. In lines 13-20 he describes how he would compliment her body, if he had the time, using the following lines:
“An hundred years should go to praise thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast, but thirty thousand to the rest. An age at least to every part, and the last age should show your heart. For, Lady, you deserve this state, nor would I love at lower rate.”
The flattery in those lines are used to say that it's because he loves her so much that he wants to do things so fast, but there isn't enough time to compliment his lover enough.
Andrew Marvell tries to show the fragility and lack of time in lines 21-22:
“But at my back I always hear time's winged chariot hurrying near;”
This is used to create an image that time will soon fly by and it will be too late. Time's winged chariot could be representing death or time's wings to show the way time flies. The second section of the poem shows the serious intent underneath the light-hearted content of the first section by creating grotesque images used by the poet. The images in lines 25-32 are of death to remind the woman how short of time they are and the grotesque images could be there to frighten her into doing what he wants:
“Thy beauty shall no more be found, nor, in my marble vault, shall sound my echoing song: then worms shall try that long preserved virginity, and your quaint honour turn to dust, and into ashes all my lust. The grave's a fine and private place, but none, i think, do there embrace.”
The lines are telling the recipient that if she leaves it too long she will be dead and in her grave the worms will be all that can take her virginity, as people cannot embrace in their separate graves.
By the third section, the poet changes his direction again to using more pleasant imagery in order to flatter his mistress into bed. The first instance of him doing so is in lines 33-36 when he says:
“Now therefore, while youthful hue sits on thy skin like morning dew, and while thy willing soul transpires ate very pore with instant fires.”
This is the poet saying that they should do what they want whilst young and willing. Referring to the both of them as “amorous birds of prey” is perhaps the poets way of saying that they are both preying on each other.
Although the poet was suggesting that there wasn't enough time at first, he now suggests that he and his lover can challenge time by using a reference to the sun to say that they can't make time stand still, but will make the most of it.
“Thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run”
The 'iron gates of life' are the restrictions or moralities we encounter in life and the poet tells to his mistress that they will forget these restrictions, or tear through the iron gates. Throughout lines 41-46 the poet is just telling the woman to forget all the restrictions and just make the best of what time they have.
This poem has an apparent suggestion that women are silent objects for men to adore, manipulate and use for their own desires and this comes across in the way the poet is using such various figures of speech to get her to do what he wants. The spirituality and freedom of both lovers is promoted in the sense that they may both have the power to say no to each other, however the way the poet is telling the mistress to sleep with him suggests that she may be good for nothing more.
In this poem, although the man has the skill of speech to try and manipulate the woman into sleeping with him, she still has the power to say no and because she probably knows he wants her so much, she can pull the strings as he shall not want to put a foot wrong.
The narrators in both poems are talking about the women in each case as possessions and items to be won. They are both biased as there are no thoughts or feelings of the women in either poem. However, the duke in “My Last Duchess” can replace his woman quite easily, where as the young man in “To His Coy Mistress” is after a woman he wants very much. Neither have control over the women in either poem as the duke must have his wife dead before he can control her and the young woman has the power to say no in Andrew Marvell's poem. “My Last Duchess” has a sinister element as there is the possibility that the duke may have physically harmed or murdered his wife, where as on the other hand, “To His Coy Mistress” presents a more light hearted, humorous tone with the use of the sexual metaphors and grotesque imagery. The control and treatment of women in Robert Browning's poem is as if they are possessions, items in a collection as shown by the painting of the duke's wife and the Neptune figure. Andrew Marvell's poem suggests that although women are not to be physically controlled, they are still manipulable and to be persuaded into doing what men want. Both poems show men as being active, but only “To His Coy Mistress” shows women as being passive as the woman involved is showing her power to say no, but the duke's wife is sleeping around.
In showing the presentation and treatment of women, “My Last Duchess” is more effective as the absence of figures of speech make the duke's thoughts and feelings towards women appear more realistic and there is proof of the way he treats women as objects to be controlled and added to the collection throughout the poem. The woman in this poem also does better in terms of having control as the only way her husband can control her is by killing her and putting a curtain over a painting of her.