The writers have also structured their poems differently as Browning has used the ABABB structure throughout "Porphyria’s Lover". He describes events and Porphyria’s actions step by step which adds to the feeling that the man has gone mad. ‘The Willing Mistress’ however uses an ABABCDCD structure in the first 8 lines but changes to a more random structure after that.
The language in both poems uses words that are old fashioned and aren’t used much anymore. For example in ‘The Willing Mistress’ Behn uses words such as ‘Strove’ which means to try and in ‘Porphyria's Lover’ Browning uses words such as ‘dissever’ which means to break or separate something. However even though both poems are very old the language is quite easy to understand.
The first thing that you notice about both poems is the difference in the mood and atmosphere. At the start of ‘Porphyria's Lover’, the reader notices straight away that it set at night and is raining and windy. Browning starts the poem using personification in the line “The sullen wind was soon awake” and talks about the wind blowing so hard as if to “spite” the tree tops and to “vex the lake”. These words seem to suggest that he is angry. In contrast, in ‘The Willing Mistress’ the atmosphere is lighter as it starts with the opening lines ‘Amyntas led me to a Grove, Where all the Trees did shade us’’ which tells the reader that it is a sunny day. Behn also uses personification by saying that “the Winds that gently rise, Doe Kiss the yielding Boughs” which has the effect of bringing the wind to life by kissing the branches.
There is also a difference in the moods of the character in the next lines in each poem as in lines 5 and 6 in ‘Porphyria's Lover’ the man has a “heart fit to break” before Porphyria “glided” in, which shows that he is unhappy. It seems that Porphyria comes in and makes herself at home taking off her wet clothes and lighting the Fire without saying a word to him. Eventually she sits down next to him and “call'd me” but he doesn’t say anything to her. In contrast in ‘The Willing Mistress’ lines 2 to 9 tell us that they are trying to not to be found by others by going to “The place secur'd from humane Eyes” which suggests that they might be meeting secretly and they sit down “And did begin to play” which suggests that they are having fun.
In both poems the women are flirting with the men as in ‘Porphyria's Lover’ the woman “put my arm about her waist And made her smooth white shoulder bare” and “Murmuring how she loved me”. In ‘The Willing Mistress’ the woman is as the title says willing to have sex with the man as is shown by the lines “A many Kisses he did give:
And I return'd the same Which made me willing to receive That which I dare not name”.
The difference is how the men react to the flirting as in ‘Porphyria's Lover’ he seems to realise at last that she loves him by saying ‘Porphyria worshipp'd me’ and once he realises this he strangles her. It is strange that the poem doesn’t describe her struggling or screaming or fighting as he strangles her but he says ‘No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain’. This shows that the man must be mad as she must have put up a fight and she would have been in pain as he strangled her.
In contrast in ‘The Willing Mistress’ the man responds to her flirting and kissing as he knows she wants to have sex with him but isn’t rough with her as he ‘lay'd me gently on the Ground’ The poem ends happily and Behn teases the reader in the last line “Ah who can guess the rest?” which makes the reader think that they do have sex.
‘Porphyria's Lover’ ends with the man no longer being angry but realising that he loves her now she is dead when he says “That all it scorn'd at once is fled, And I, its love, am gain'd instead!”. He seems to be calm now she is dead and sits with her body all night. The poems end with the line “And yet, God has not said a word!” which may suggest that he thinks he was right to kill her as God has said nothing as he doesn’t seem to show any guilt about it.
To conclude I feel that the poems are similar in many ways as they are both about sex and both use personification to bring things to life. However they have different structures and the mood and atmosphere in each poem is very different from each other.
