'My Last Duchess' is a love poem, where it describes about 2 people marrying each other for business or political reasons.

by kingabdul (student)

'My Last Duchess' is a love poem, where it describes about 2 people marrying each other for business or political reasons. The poem is set during the Italian Renaissance. The person who is speaking throughout the poem or presumably the narrator is the Duke of Ferrara. The story is about the Duke showing a painting of his last duchess who he says died of a heart attack at a very young age, to an emissary of his prospective second wife. The poem tells us that the duke takes only 1 of the emissaries from the delegation and leaves the rest downstairs eating. He takes one of the emissaries and shows him a painting of his last duchess, Lucrezia de’ Medici and he goes on talking to the emissary about her. He then starts

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telling the emissary about him seeing the painting of the duchess as she was alive and then he starts giving the painting some life 'Looking as if she were alive' and 'and there she stands'. He also tells the emissary about the artist who painted the painting, Fra Pandolf. He also starts to brag about his painting and starts to say that no stranger can look and see the painting but him. He is also referring the emissary as a stranger however he is showing him the painting just to impress him and the delegation. The duke mentions a curtain covering the painting. This indicates that the duke controls the painting or basically his last duchess as he gives some life to the painting in the first few lines in the poem. He also then talks about her being flirtatious and that he also accuses Fra Pandolf of flirting with his last duchess. The duke also explains to the emissary that she can easily fall in love with anyone or anything and also she liked whatever she saw. He also said that she likes everything equally, for example in the poem it says, 'Sir, 'twas all one! My favour at her breast, the dropping of the daylight in the West', meaning that a beautiful sunset is as important to her as is the duke's family emblem. He also considered her a very humble, ordinary person as she would prefer to ride a white mule and not a white stallion; this is mentioned in the poem, of the duke saying, ' Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule'. The duke considered her as a peasant as she always acted like one and not like a duchess and he blamed her for embarrassing him. He also said he has to 'stoop' or lower his status to a peasant or a villager to tolerate her overfriendly actions. It is mentioned in the poem by the duke, 'Who'd stoop to blame this sort of trifling?' The duke then starts insulting the duchess from lines 36-39. Then the duke mentions in the poem by giving commands and having all smiles stopped. This indicates that he gave commands or orders to kill the duchess. After the duke finishes talking about his last duchess he tells the emissary to get up and to join the rest of the delegation downstairs. He then talks about financial issues to the emissary about the dowry and he tells him that he does not have to pretend to get how much he wants, because of his generosity. He is then indicating the emissary that he is more interested in the dowry than in the daughter, and then he catches his mistake and says that prefers the daughter more. Then the emissary and the duke walk down together and then the duke shows the emissary another piece of his art gallery, a statue of Neptune taming a seahorse. This indicates that the duke is trying to impress the emissary even more. He is saying that something as strong as Neptune is taming a rare beauty as a seahorse. This indicates that he is saying that everyone that has power and authority must control all rare items and things. By: Abdul Rahim Altiti 10AA