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Introduction

Love in "Let me not", "First love", "My last duchess" and "Porphyria's lover" In this essay I will be discussing the views of love which are presented in four different poems. I will be explaining each poem in detail and I will also compare and contrast the ideas about love made by the poet. The four I will be comparing are "Let me not" "First love" "My last duchess" "Porphyria's lover" I noticed that the theme love is commonly used in all the poems. Each poet writer has a different view on love. The language used by each poet differs. In the poem "Let me not" written by William Shakespeare. This is what we call a sonnet. This is sonnet number CXV1. This poem is also a rhyming couplet and the rhyming scheme is ABAB CACA EFEF GG this poem contains four quatrains. The main theme about this poem is true love. In this poem Shakespeare is using language and describing the effects of love. He said love conquers time he also says love does not die as you get old. The poem is trying to get a message over to the reader. I think it may be that true love never ends. At first he portrays that he believes in strength and true love. Secondly he uses metaphor images. "Though Rosie lips and cheeks" This is an example of metaphor. In this quote I think he is trying to point out that there is more than a physical side to love. ...read more.

Middle

The Duke tells the messenger about the painting, whom it was painted by and the content of the painting: ("Fr� Pandolf's hands worked busily a day,") Later on in the poem you can see that the Duke is very persuasive and keen on his famous names; for example the painting was painted by Fr� Pandolf who was a very good artist at the time, which is explained by the phrase "Worked busily a day." The main content of this poem is based on Duke's explanation of the painting. He comes out as a strong powerful character, for example in the line 11 he uses "If they durst" meaning if they dared, showing that he is strong, respected and has power and maybe even that he is feared. "Her husband's presence only, called that spot of joy into the duchess cheeks." After this the Duke begins to speak in an angry tone. He explains to the messenger about the "Spot of joy" and how he was not the only one who caused this. As this was written in the 19th century, it would have been wrong for a married woman to flirt with other men. Browning writes that the duchess would have this "spot of joy" with the slightest thing; this spot of joy would be practically like flirting. From lines 21 to 34 browning also explains how easily the duchess was impressed by the smallest things such as, "The white Muller she rode with round the terrace," This also caused the "spot of joy." ...read more.

Conclusion

I think he might have planned to kill her and keep her forever. I think this is because of line 32. "While I debated what to do." This tells me that he had planned to kill her. He also feels as if he has done the right thing and there is nothing wrong with it. As the final line is "And yet god has not said a word." I think that the lover thinks he has done the right thing and was not a crime which is punishable. This brings a point to my head that if the poem was written in 1800's then the punishment for murder would have been capital and if a woman was seeing two men she would be known as a prostitute, so meeting the lover, Porphyria would have been private and in the countryside away from public. I think the lover character seems to be cold at first. He ignored Porphyria's enticement and just sits there, "no voice replied." However after he kills her, there is a strong passionate side that comes through and then he begins to show love towards her. "blushed bright beneath my burning kiss," the burning gave me a image of Porphyria's face going red and there being a long, passionate kiss from the lover Porphyria on the other hand seemed to be warm open and giving herself to him. Just like "my last duchess," I personally think that browning is yet again successful in passing the message across of a strange love like the lovers and the Duke's. Once again he has used effective and emotional language in the poems and it has worked very well. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Love Poetry section.