"She shut the cold out and storm
She Kneeled and made the cheerless Grate"
This is saying that all the coldness and angry atmosphere from outside is being blocked once she comes. Her beauty takes over and warms up the cottage.
"A sudden thought of one so pale For love of her, and in all in vein"
This gives the impression that Porphyria does not love him with all
her heart and maybe there is someone else. We already know that she is the powerful, leader of the relationship when he says
"And called me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm around her waist."
This could tell us that he is jealous of her and her beauty and that
he wants the power over the relationship because he is the man and he thinks that the men should have the control over women. He has
realized he is not the only man who loves her so does not want her
love for him shared with another man. If he can't have her to himself
then nobody is. We do not expect there to be a killing as we know that she is powerful and that he loved her, therefore the killing is quite
sudden and unexpected.
"In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around
And strangled him, no pain she felt"
After he has killed her, he reassures himself that there
is nothing wrong with what he has done. There is a comparison between his love for her and the killing. He loves her but the jealousy of her
not being entirely faithful to him drives him to it he wants to be the
dominant person in the relationship.
"Laughed the blue eyes without a stain"
He opens her eyes and thinks in his mind that she is still alive and
he has not done anything wrong. He treats her like she is still alive
and sits her up.
The end of the poem is effective, it suggests a very private murder
that not even god notices.
“God has not yet said aword!”
The narrator finds it strange that God doesn't praise him or punish him after he murders Porphyria. It probably justifies his act in his mind.
“Made the cheerless grate”
The first thing that Porphyria does when she enters the narrator's
house is light his fireplace. She does this even before she takes off
her soaking wet coat and gloves. She seems to care very much for
the narrator and puts his comfort before her own. The narrator calls the fireplace a "cheerless grate," before Porphyria comes over. It's as if she gives his home a sense of "home."
“Let the damp hair fall”
When the narrator notices Porphyria's hair, it foreshadows what
will occur at the end of the poem. He calls it the damp hair, not her damp hair. It's as if she doesn't posses it herself.
“Made her smooth white shoulder bare”
The narrator acts as if Porphyria intentionally exposes her shoulder, but it could just be that the narrator is watching her
as she moves about. She may have not been trying to
purposefully catch his eye. Even so, he takes it as his belief
that she "made" her shoulder bare.
“Made my cheek lie there”
Once again, the narrator alludes to the fact the Porphyria "made" something happen. This time, she made him become enveloped in and entranced by her hair. He is making it seem that Porphyria is forcing him to submit to glancing at her and lying on her.
“ Too weak ”
Even though Porphyria is able to "make" him do things against his will, she is still weak. She is "weak" because she is not willing to enter a fully committed serious relationship with him. Perhaps she is young and wants more freedom before she settles down. Whatever the case, the narrator is not happy with Porphyria's announcement and he sees her independence from him as weakness.
“And give herself to me forever”
The narrator shifts to thoughts about possession. He wants to possess Porphyria forever, and now that she just spoke to him about "not
being able to set her passions free," he is afraid he's going to lose her.
“And all in vain”
He feels that their whole relationship has just been in vain. Porphyria appears to be the one coming out on top since she is in control of where their relationship is heading.
“I looked up at her eyes”
Similarly to how the narrator noticed Porphyria's hair when she first walked in, looking at her eyes also foreshadows the end of the poem. This time, he believes that he can sense from Porphyria's eyes that she worships him.
“Worshiped me”
The narrator wants to believe that Porphyria worshipped him with her eyes when she walked in to his house. She may have been to an
extent, she does seem to care about him. The narrator, however, is slipping more and more into a possessive dominator.
“That moment she was mine, mine”
Here we see that the narrator wants to fully possess Porphyria and keep her all to himself.
“Perfectly pure and good”
He thinks that Porphyria is only pure and good when she is submitting to him.
“ I found “
The narrator "finds" a way to kill Porphyria. Although he may have thought about killing her before, he never pre-meditated it to be done in this way.
“As a shut bud that holds a bee”
After the narrator kills Porphyria, he looks into her eyes to make sure there is no life in her left. As she lies there asleep, he sees her body as a beautiful bud. The life inside her, however, that has the potential of being alive is seen as a bee. He is associating life with pain.
“Laughed the blue eyes without a stain”
It it beginning to become apparent that the narrator is not fully aware of what is truly taking place. He sees Porphyria's dead eyes as "laughing," happy to be dead. He also seems them "without a stain": without any sign of hatred or malic towards her killer.
“My burning kiss”
While the narrator didn't kiss Porphyria during the whole scene while she was alive, he decides to take it upon himself to kiss her after she's dead. He calls it a "burning" kiss. "Burning" is usually associated with desire and passion. It's strange that he finds this passion in kissing a completely and utterly submissive woman.
“Only, this time my shoulder bore”
The narrator seems proud of the fact that the woman now lies on his shoulder, while earlier on in the poem it was the other way around.
“So glad it has its utmost will”
Porphyria is now referred to as an "it." The narrator believes that her will has been fulfilled because now he fully dominates over her.
“Her darling one wish would be heard”
He is fully convinced that it was her one wish to lose her sense of independence to become completely under his power.
“God has not yet said aword!”
The narrator finds it strange that God doesn't praise him or punish him after he murders Porphyria. It probably justifies his act in his mind.
