MY LAST DUCHESS AND LA BELLE DAMES

SANS MERCI REFERENCE POEM

In the above poems love is presented in 2 very different ways, twisted and false
love, typically romantic forbidden love, and unchanging love. Twisted and
controlling love is a theme that can be seen in some of Robert Brownings poetry.
My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue written in 1842 by Robert Browning.
It is written in 28 rhyming couplets, with iambic pentameter, which dominates
the poem. The conversational flow of the poem is created by making caesura
and enjambment. The enjambed lines may indicate control that the speaker is
exerting on the conversation and give the feeling that the speaker is rushing
through parts of the poem, possibly skimming over the parts the show him in a
unflattering light.

When the Duke speaks of the death of his wife, for example, the lines running
over suggest that he is nervous about the subject and is nervous of whether he
is revealing too much about his involvement and the caesuras also suggest to
the reader that he is hiding something or that he is pausing to carefully think
about his phrasing. However, perhaps on reflection, he then boasts of his
involvement i gave commands possibly showing his character as fake and
mysterious, untrustworthy.

We know that the Duchess died suspiciously and that the Duke is in the process
of looking for a new wife, and suggesting he disposed of his old one. He is
speaking to a messenger about a painting of his now deceased Duchess. The
Duke, of course, is casting himself in a favourable light and is presenting his best
side. He wants to make it look as if his wife was cheating on him and was
unfaithful to him, showing he is not trust worthy. He is very controlling, and could
not control her and her smiles or looks too soon made glad, too easily
impressed.

The smile was what the Duke liked the most about the painting of the Duchess
he feels that the painter accurately captured the smile and the spot of joy in the
Duchess. Now that the Duke owns this painting and has placed it behind a
curtain, he can at last control who is graced with her smile. When the Duchess
was alive, the Duke could not control her smile and love for life and he
considered her unfaithful. Other aspects of the Duke that remain unclear include
his true character and his true feelings for the Duchess, whether he really ever
loved her or not, remain unknown.

As mentioned, he is presenting his best side, but through his speech the reader
sees how he is very jealous and controlling, which leads one to believe that he
may have many dishonourable qualities. With such a negative description of the
Duchess, suggesting she was unfaithful and lacking in refinement, it raises
questions about the Dukes true feelings for the Duchess. This is where the idea
of twisted and false love comes in . We question whether the Duke ever loved
the Duchess or whether she was just another object for him to control and toy
with for his own personal enjoyment and not because of true love for his wife.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, A Ballard. Is portrayed as perhaps the most

classically romantic type of love. Often passionate, poetic and short lived, this
type of love is well represented in this poem, although it does have many
interpretations. The style and language of the poem is very romantic, while
theme can be interpreted as forbidden love.

In the poem a young knight meets a beautiful woman, who is so described as a

faeries child. This description immediately gives us the impression that this
young woman is not of the mortal world. There are many stories surrounding
relationships between mortals and immortals, and they are often thought to be
forbidden. The barrier between these two worlds often leads to unhappiness as
the immortality of one partner creates problems in the relationship in many
myths for example Persephone and Hades.

The first glimpse we get that the relationship between the knight and the fairy
may be forbidden is when the poet says she wept and sighed full sore . It is
possible that the fairy is weeping as she knows the relationship is doomed from
the start, that the couple cannot stay together, as the crossover between mortal
and immortal world is precluded. She may be powerless to stop the fate of the
knight, and is feeling guilty for what she imposed on the knight.

As the fairy is unable to help him escape his fate, she tries to comfort him as
best she can, and there she lulled me to sleep. As he sleeps the knight is shown
the fate of a man like him, one who has had this fate placed upon him. He is not
quite sure if it is a dream, or if he has entered his fate, shown by the constant
switching of scenery, from lakeside to hillside -lines 40-44. This dream like state
relays back to the romantic love and the idea of dreams, beautiful fairies and
other worlds were all romantic ideas, common at the time.

Moreover, death will never be able to take the beloved and concludes that as
long as humans exist and can see, the poem will live on, allowing the beloved to
keep living as well. This poem has the classic romantic and poetic language of a
love poem, the best instance being the comparison of the subjects beauty to the
transient beauty of nature, as the lady in La Belle Dame Sans Merci, is described
in relation to nature. However the poet goes on to argue that the subjects beauty
is the opposite of natures, as summer can be too hot and short summers
lease hath all too short a date.