"Hitcher"By Simon Armitage, "Education For Leisure" By Carol Anne Duffy,"My Last Duchess" and "The Lab" by Robert Browning are allpoems that deal with violence or the prospect of violence.

      Both of the poems are arranged in stanzas, "Hitcher" contains some full and half rhyme to keep the poem moving but "Education for Leisure" is in free verse with short abrupt lines showing the characters irrational mind. Both authors choose to write in the style of a dramatic monologue as this is an effective way of portraying the poetic voices, thought and feelings. Simple and direct language is used by Armitage to demonstrate the characters casual attitude to violence. It is also used in "Ed for Leisure" to help create the short staccato lines such as "Today I am going to kill something. Anything." Both poems by Robert Browning are dramatic monologues, "The Lab" is a mixture of the main characters thoughts and her words to the apothecary. She seems very similar to the main characters in both "Ed for Leisure" and "Hitcher" as an insane twisted side of her character is exposed…

The lady in "The Laboratory" is plotting to murder the mistress of her lover and seems very excited about the prospect of death. In asking the apothecary, "Wot that I bid you spare her the pain;" she shows that she wants her victim to die slowly and painfully. This demonstrates a craving for violence like the characters in Armitage and Duffy's poems. As well as sharing the structure of a dramatic monologue, "The Lab" is also arranged in stanzas like the previous two poems and contains rhyme like "Hitcher". The second poem by Robert Browning is called "My Last Duchess" like the other 3 poems it is a dramatic monologue and shares the same rhyme scheme as "The Lab". The poetic voice talks about how his wife was too flirtatious and how it was not only him that brought smiles to her face. After a while, he grew tired of not being appreciated, gave orders and her smile stopped all together.  

               The main characters in "Ed for Leisure" and "My Last Duchess" are both very egocentric using lots of personal pronouns. For example the second and last word of Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess" talks about himself.

       All of the poems deal with violence but they all deal with diff ways egocentric, twisted people vent anger through violence. I personally feel that dramatic monologues convey this emotion very well, I esp like "hitcher" and "Ed for Leisure" as the characters drawn are realistic. However, this may be because I find them easier to read due to the more modern language.