Robert Browning: His Life and

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Robert BrowningHis Life and My Last Duchess

• By
• Candice McLane
• Nancy Lee
• Brett Freithaler

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Robert BrowningHis Life and My Last Duchess
The uncut version
By Candice McLane Nancy Lee Brett Freithaler
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Identify this quote
2You're saying this only to make me go 1 I'm
saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we
both know you belong with Victor. You're part of
his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that
plane leaves the ground and you're not with him,
you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not
tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
2 But what about us? 1 We'll always have
Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you
came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
2 When I said I would never leave you. 1 And
you never will. But I've got a job to do, too.
Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got
to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no
good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to
see that the problems of three little people
don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy
world. Someday you'll understand that. Now,
now... Here's looking at you kid.
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Casablanca
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Poetic Technique Dramatic Monologue

• Dramatic Monologue is a poetic form in which a
  single character, addressing a silent auditor at
  a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and
  the dramatic situation.
• Helps the reader learn about the speaker (the
  Duke) and reveal their true feelings

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Facts about Robert Browning

• He was intellectual. He read at the age of 5 and
  composed his first poetry at the age of 6.
• Married a poet, Elizabeth Barrett, who praised
  him and his works which, in turn, gained
  recognition
• Buried in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey
• 1881 in London, the Browning Society was
  established for the study of his poems

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Facts about Robert Browning continued

• He developed techniques, such as diction, rhythm,
  and symbol, which were considered his most
  significant involvement in poetry. These
  techniques were used by major poets (Ezra Pound,
  T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost).

Sherriff
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My Last Duchess (Things to know about the form
of the poem)

• Written in rhymed iambic pentameter,
• An iamb has two syllables an unstressed followed
  by a stressed.
• A Pentameter means that there are five groups of
  iambs in a line of poetry each group is called a
  foot.
• Uses rhymed couplets- every two lines end with a
  rhyme.
• Written to the reader as if they were
  eavesdropping on a conversation

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My Last Duchess
Interpretation
Poem

• That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
  Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a
  wonder, now Frà Pandolf's hands Worked busily a
  day, and there she stands. Will't please you sit
  and look at her?

• The speaker is the Duke of Ferrara who is
  standing in front of a portrait of his last wife,
  who is now dead.
• Theres emphasis of the mastery of the artist,
  Fra Pandolf who made the painting
• You is referring to another character, an
  emissary

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My Last Duchess

• I said "Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
  Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The
  depth and passion of its earnest glance, But to
  myself they turned (since none puts by The
  curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

• By design, the artist is well known
• All of the paintings viewers remark upon the
  paintings life-like look
• Its, instead of herDuke has more of a
  relationship with the painting than with his wife
• Portrays his possessiveness and control as the
  painting is behind a curtain

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My Last Duchess

• And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
  How such a glance came there so, not the first
  Are you to turn and ask thus.

• Previous viewers also wanted to know what made
  the Duchess have that look in her eyes

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My Last Duchess

• Sir, 'twas not Her husband's presence only,
  called that spot Of joy into the Duchess' cheek
  perhaps

• The Duke tells the emissary that it wasnt his
  presence that made his wife happy or caused the
  spot of joy (blushing)

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My Last Duchess continued

• Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps "Over
  my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint Must never
  hope to reproduce the faint "Half-flush that dies
  along her throat" such stuff Was courtesy, she
  thought, and cause enough For calling up that
  spot of joy.

• The Duke starts to guess at what might have
  caused the Duchess to blush

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My Last Duchess

• She had A heart--how shall I say?--too soon made
  glad, Too easily impressed she liked whate'er
  She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
  Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast,

• Start of the Dukes long list of complaints
  against the Duchess
• Duchess is described to be too easily pleased and
  impressed
• His criticalness for her implies that he is a
  jerk.

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My Last Duchess

• The dropping of the daylight in the West, The
  bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in
  the orchard for her, the white mule She rode with
  round the terrace--all and each Would draw from
  her alike the approving speech, Or blush, at
  least.

• Duke blames her for not seeing any difference
  between being the wife of a great man and
• Being able to see the sunset
• Received a bouquet from someone lower than the
  Duke
• Rode a white mule

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My Last Duchess

• She thanked men--good! but thanked Somehow--I
  know not how--as if she ranked My gift of a
  nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift.
  Who'd stoop to blame

• She thanked all men Gave all of them the kind of
  respect that only a man with his rank should
  deserves

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My Last Duchesscontinued

• This sort of trifling? Even had you skill In
  speech--which I have not--to make your will Quite
  clear to such an one, and say, "Just this "Or
  that in you disgusts me here you miss, "Or there
  exceed the mark"--and if she let

• The Duke says that he would not lower himself by
  telling the Duchess what bothered him.

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My Last Duchesscontinued

• Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set Her wits
  to yours, forsooth, and make excuse, --E'en then
  would be some stooping and I choose Never to
  stoop.

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My Last Duchess

• Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene'er I passed
  her but who passed without Much the same smile?
  This grew I gave commands Then all smiles
  stopped together. There she stands As if alive.
  Will't please you rise?

• Duke recalls her smile, but she never reserved a
  smile for him
• Duke used his power to stop his wifes
  friendliness
• We dont know exactly what happened to the
  Duchess but he may have ordered her assassination

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My Last Duchess

• We'll meet The company below, then. I repeat, The
  Count your master's known munificence Is ample
  warrant that no just pretense Of mine for dowry
  will be disallowed Though his fair daughter's
  self, as I avowed At starting, is my object.

• Talks about his upcoming marriage
• States that the father of his future bride will
  give him a dowry

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My Last Duchess

• Nay we'll go Together down, sir. Notice Neptune,
  though, Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
  Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

• Duke is re-stating his power over his new bride
• Shows his ability to possess objects

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Questions

• Where is the painting of the Duchess located?

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Answer

• Behind a curtain

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Question

• What does the Duke say that he will never do?

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Answer

• Stoop

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Question

• What happened to the Duchess?

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Answer

• She died, but we dont know how... (Duke may have
  ordered an assassination)

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Now that you're so good at this...

•  The key to faking out the parents is the clammy
  hands. Its a good non-specific symptom Im a
  big believer in it. A lot of people will tell you
  that a good phony fever is a dead lock, but, uh
  you get a nervous mother, you could wind up in a
  doctors office. Thats worse than school. You
  fake a stomach cramp, and when youre bent over,
  moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. Its a
  little childish and stupid, but then, so is high
  school.

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Works Citied

• Browning, Robert. "My Last Duchess." EXPLORING
  Poetry. Online ed. Detroit Gale, 2003. Student
  Resource Center - Bronze. Gale. North Allegheny
  Senior High School. 14 May. 2009
  lthttp//find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?conte
  ntSetGSRCtyperetrievetabIDT008prodIdSRC-3d
  ocIdEJ2114230375sourcegalesrcprodSRCSuserGro
  upNamepl2552version1.0gt.
• dramatic monologue." Dictionary.com Unabridged
  (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 14 May. 2009.
  ltDictionary.com http//dictionary1.classic.referen
  ce.com/browse/dramatic monologuegt.
• "Explanation My Last Duchess." EXPLORING Poetry.
  Online ed. Detroit Gale, 2003. Student Resource
  Center - Bronze. Gale. North Allegheny Senior
  High School. 14 May. 2009 lthttp//find.galegroup.c
  om/srcx/infomark.do?contentSetGSRCtyperetrieve
  tabIDT008prodIdSRC-3docIdEJ2114730375source
  galesrcprodSRCSuserGroupNamepl2552version1.
  0gt.
• "Explanation of 'My Last Duchess Ferrra' by
  Robert Browning." LitFinder Contemporary
  Collection. Detroit Gale, 2007. LitFinder. Gale.
  NORTH ALLEGHENY SCHOOL DISTRICT. 14 May
  2009lthttp//go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?pLITFu
  pl2552gt.

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Works Cited continuation

• "My Last Duchess." EXPLORING Poetry. Online ed.
  Detroit Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center -
  Bronze. Gale. North Allegheny Senior High School.
  14 May. 2009 lthttp//find.galegroup.com/srcx/infom
  ark.do?contentSetGSRCtyperetrievetabIDT001p
  rodIdSRC-3docIdEJ2114530375sourcegaleuserGro
  upNamepl2552version1.0gt.
• "Robert Browning (1812-1889)." MAS Ultra - School
  Edition. 2003. Hutchinson's Biography Database.
  Web.11 May 2009. lthttp//web.ebscohost.com/src/det
  ail?vid7bk1hid108sid67c81b56-e752-4038-b632
  -858e8ba4cb9540sessionmgr102bdataJnNpdGU9c3JjLW
  xpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ3d3ddbulhAN32213812gt.
• "Robert Browning." Academy of American Poets
  Web.12 May 2009. lthttp//www.poets.org/poet.php/pr
  mPID/182gt.
• "Robert Browning." LitFinder Contemporary
  Collection. Detroit Gale, 2007. LitFinder. Gale.
  NORTH ALLEGHENY SCHOOL DISTRICT. 14 May 2009
  lthttp//go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?pLITFupl25
  52gt.