Porphyria’s Lover, Robert Browning

• Context


  ● Victorian era: female sexuality was a taboo topic/repressed

  ● Porphyria: rare blood disease, can cause hallucinations = madness

  ● Upper class marriages often arranged, led to secret affairs as shown in the poem
• 'Sullen wind’ ‘vex the lake’


  pathetic fallacy sets ominous tone, foreshadowing
• ‘Soiled gloves’ ‘dripping cloak and shawl’


  material focus on clothes, enjambment shows how transfixed he is, soiled suggests cheating - doubtful of loyalty
• ‘Smooth white shoulder bare’


  flirtatious, in control, tense relationship: no response
• ‘Porphyria worshipped me'


  religious connotations show power imbalance
• ‘She was mine,mine’


  repetition, possessive, madness
• 'Blue eyes without a stain’


  colour imagery fulfils idea of perfection even after she is dead, she does not hate him
• ‘I, its love, am gained instead'


  ‘it’ object he wants to possess, roles reversed: she is now defined thru him
• ‘God has not said a word!’

  religious justification, hubristic nature, defiant tone
• Dramatic monologue, strict ABABB highlights his delusion


  twisted narrative, together shows intentionality behind his madness
• Themes and comparisons


  ● SONNET 29: longing from lack of physical connection: use of natural imagery, first person narrative, intense emotion (repetition vs broken lines), comments on desire and physical love, positive resolution vs violent and jealous ending, lover’s presence will solve issues

  ● FARMERS BRIDE: frustrated desire + violence: first person narrative, repetition, natural imagery, resort to violence (death vs chase), possessive speakers, intimate night vs distance
• Context


  ● Part of collection of 44 sonnets - allegedly written to Robert Browning whom she was courting at the time: presents their complex relationship ● Sonnets usually written by men, subverts gender expectations + expresses strong emotions rationally