The two poems I am studying are 'The Flea' by John Donne and 'Porthyria's Lover' by Robert Browning. The authors of both these poems approach the theme of love in very individual and original ways. I am going to examine both.

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Laura Cowley

Pre 20th Century poetry

The two poems I am studying are ‘The Flea’ by John Donne and ‘Porthyria’s Lover’ by Robert Browning.  The authors of both these poems approach the theme of love in very individual and original ways.  I am going to examine both.

The poem ‘Porthyria’s Lover’ is about a woman called Porthyria who is strangled to death by her lover.  The man telling the story seems to want to keep Porthyria by his side forever.  He has very obsessive love for her.  He is possessive and jealous and his deadly mind games bring nothing but heartache for Porthyria.  He wants their love to last forever and plans on doing this no matter what it takes.

Porthyria’s Lover totally adores her.  On her arrival she made “all the cottage warm”.  When she entered the room she “shut out the cold” and nothing else mattered to him.

Although its seems like he was been waiting for her he is very unresponsive as she called him and “no voice replied”.  As much as her seems to adore her he describes her gloves as “soiled”, maybe saying that in his eyes she is not quite as innocent as she makes out to be.

He has very complex feeling for Porthyria and there is a weird balance of power between the two of them.  An example of this is around line 15.  When he doesn’t reply she is the one that puts his “arm around her waist”.  He doesn’t want to do it himself and is a bit distant.  Maybe this is because he has found out something bad and can’t bear to touch her at that time.  He might be cautious or angry.  

Robert Browning gives the impression that something or someone is coming between them.  The reader is given this idea when Porthyria’s Lover is talking bout another who is love sick just as he is, the big difference being that the other person’s love is “all in vain”.  They are wasting their time because she is his and not theirs.  This brings about the question is ‘Porthyria’s Lover’ about the man who murders or could it be about another lover the person that is keeping Porthyria away him.  Finding out that Porthyria is his is something that takes him by “surprise”.  At last he knew Porthyria “worshipped him” and he finally had her to himself.  Porthyria is finally his and he wanted that moment to last forever, this being his motive for murder.

At that moment Porthyria’s “soiled” past had been forgotten and at last she seemed “perfectly pure and good.”  We are given the impression that Porthyria has strayed before so maybe the lover thinks the only way to make her his forever is to kill her.  He can only be sure she is his alone if she is dead.

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The lover makes killing Porthyria sound so shockingly simple and as if it was just something he had to do.  The lead to the strangling is so matter of fact that it makes it seem the lover knew what he was doing.  Everything was sorted in his head and he was in no doubt of what he had to do.  The “mine, mine” made me think that he was going a bit crazy and that it was only a matter of time before he panicked and did something irrational.  

As soon as he had strangled her he started making ...

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