porphyria's lover

• Porphyria: A disease impacting the nervous system or skin, causing madness & a long, painful death. Commonly caught genetically through inbreeding.
• ABABB rhyme scheme, suggesting that the narrator looks normal on the outside yet has psychopathic tendencies inside.
• Dramatic monologue & an unreliable narrator, revealing his true madness
• 1 long stanza split into sections of 5 lines.
• "She was mine, mine fair"


  Repetition of 'mine' shows the absolute insanity and possessiveness he feels over Porphyria.
• "She was mine, mine fair"
• "She put my arm about her waist, and made her smooth white shoulder bare"


  Shows sexual forwardness & how unconventional she is for the time period. Also shows the inability of the narrator to move as she has to move his arm for him.
• "She put my arm about her waist & made her smooth white shoulder bare"
• Comparable with:

  • Sonnet 29
  • The Farmer's Bride
• The narrator is portrayed as being weak and powerless throughout the poem.
• It is implied that this is an affair, & that the woman is of an upper class. This could be the motivation for killing her, as she cannot return to her wealthy life and must spend eternity with him.
• "And yet God has not said a word!"


  Since nothing has punished him for the murder of Porphyria, he's deluded & believes that its what she wanted.
• "And yet God has not said a word!"
• Enjambment is used to speed up the pace of the poem to mirror the adrenaline he feels whilst killing her.
• Written by Robert Browning.