Dead lover poems Students name Instructors name Submission date

Introduction: These are four poems about the craziness of love. Love comes with all the insecurities, fears and emotions but the true and sensible lover does not allow these traits to overpower him in a negative manner. The first poem Porphyrias lover deals with the subject of living together forever, where the story of husband and wifes eternal love has been discussed. It is the one of the best dramatic monologue of Browning. The wife embraces her husband by going against the wishes of the society and despite of all the criticism she chooses to be with him. (Allan Casson, pp. 25) He believes in the purity of the love for his wife but doubts Gods will to continue the happiness forever, so he strangled his wife to make sure that they both live together. He decided to punish himself rather than God doing it and so savors the moment of love. My last duchess depicts the story of a Duke of Ferrara who is the speaker of the poem as well. He got widowed recently and now looking for another proposal. He showed his wife painting to an emissary. While sharing the beauty of his wife he also reveals her character. She was flirtatious and carefree towards other men, which the duke didnt like. Meanwhile the duke spoke about his insecurities and jealousy towards the duchess. The demise of the duchess as evident from the poem was by the will of the Duke. Now the Duke is preparing to get married to another lady. Annabel Lee is the master piece of Edgar Allan Poe. It shares the love story of Annabel Lee and her lover who is also the speaker of the poem. Unfortunately Annabel fell sick and died. The speaker/ lover felt agitated and angry at the decision of God and claims that he will love Annabel forever as this was not a teenage love, rather a true and passionate love. There is

nothing he could do to bring her back and blames angels and heaven of taking her away from him. The lover sleeps in her tomb every night and believes that even death cannot separate them The last poem is the narrative of true event written by Charles Causley. It is about the cold murder of Charlotte a lovely, cheerful and honest girl. Charlotte had a friend named Mathew whom she trusted and once shared about her true feelings of love for someone else. Mathew was not expecting this from her and upon listening this reality he murder her and left her to rot there in the farm. Later the news of Charlotte missing spread in the town and the inquiry directly led to Mathew. He didnt deny and rather accepted the crime and didnt feel sorry for the girl instead advocated her purity. However he didnt want to see her with anyone else. Mathew was convicted of the murder and was sentenced to death in front of thousands of people. The males of all the four poems depicted the insanity of love which means that some people who are in love may sometimes cross the limits of being sane and logical minded. Rather the insecurities, fears, jealousy and deceit over powers their logical thinking and they start taking wrong decisions. Similarly in these poems such behavior is depicted. The speaker from the poem Porphyrias lover by Robert Browning is the craziest of all because he strangled his wife just to avoid any misfortunes of life where his wife might be taken away from her; he also doubts her love for him. By killing her he thinks that she will be with him forever. Discussion: The speaker of the poem Porphyrias love is the lover and husband of the protagonist Porphyria. He is the man who is in confused state of mind, is insane and incapable of thinking logically. The speaker is narrating the story to the audience. The speaker mindset is the basic

conflict in the poem. He loves his wife dearly which is evident in the lines where he speaks of her beauty, her golden hair and soft skin. The speaker passionate love is clearly depicted further where he claims that when his wife embraces him he feels severely love and passion. The happy married couple feeling can be felt with the scene described in the poem, where the rain is pouring down to the ground. Both of them live in a cottage with a lake running aside. The speaker really loves his wife and misses her after her death, as rain has been used as a metaphor describing the speakers tears and broken heart. He didnt trust her wifes eternity of love for him so on order to savor the love he strangles her to death. He does this with a yellow string and ties it around her neck, repeated the process thrice. This shows his illogical and insanity where he tries to punish God and fate rather punishes him. The poem reflects the sorrow and sadness of the speaker as he has lost his most dearly possession and now has to face the world alone. (Allan Casson , pp. 25) But the insane and crazy speaker/ husband have punished himself. As far as the second poem My last duchess is concerned the speaker of the poem is Duke Ferrara, a widower now and in the process of accepting the second marriage proposal. He is not really saddened by the demise of the duchess, shows off the beauty of his wife but couldnt hide his own feelings of insecurity, jealousy and suspicion towards his late wife. The speakers character is of a powerful Duke who claims that of someone cant obey him then he disposes off that person. The relationship between the two shows the 18th century traditions where the men were powerful and women supposed to love only their husbands. (Kennedy et.al, pp. 200) The victims flirtatious nature which is the theme of the poem is evident from the lines in the poem where the speaker speaks about her smile which was not only for her husband rather it was same for every other men. The blush on her cheeks which was not due to shyness rather because of the

presence of other men. So the murder of the lover/ duchess is due to her own flirtatious and carefree nature. The narrative story of Charolettes murder depicted in poem Ballad of Charlotte is based on true event. The speaker of the poem is Charles Causley. The speaker is sympathetic towards Charlotte and is questioning Mathew that why he has killed such a lovely lady. (Amanda& Audery , pp. 26) The metaphor green gauze handkerchief displays the joyful and cheerful life of Charlotte. The speaker is horrified by such an event and the mood is tragic as he states that lie upon the moor land and where stands the scared snow. Charlotte thought of Mathew as her true friend and told him about her love interest which was someone else. Upon learning this Mathew slid her throat and left her to rot there by the farm side. Mathews insanity and jealousy is evident from his coward and drastic step of murdering charlotte. He loves the girl as he testifies that the girl was pure and without sin. (Amanda & Audery, pp. 28) The speaker of the poem Annabel Lee is her lover Poe, he is angry and blames heaven and angels of the death of his lover as she died of the natural causes. The poem is the tribute to the love of the speaker and his sadness at the loss of his lover. The use of word sea is the symbol of sadness and loneliness of the Annabel who is in her tomb. He curses the angels and states that they were jealous of his and Annabels pure and eternal love and that is why has taken her away. (Dawn B, pp. 25) At the start the speaker talks about their happy and charming love by stating kingdom by the sea. The moon in the poem highlights the hope that Poe has of uniting with his lover. The ending of the poem shows the rage of Poe who claims that even death could not apart them. He sleeps besides her tomb. He has not murdered her lover rather she died a natural death.

Conclusion: Love is not boastful; it is not resentful and doesnt hurt anyone. It has the ability to sacrifice rather than taking the lives of the lover. But sometimes insanity and illogical thinking surpasses the purity of love and encourages the lovers to take drastic steps of even killing their own love. In all four poems the ill-minded, insanity and confused nature of lovers are depicted. In the poem Prophyrias lover to be with his love forever he strangles his beautiful wife as he is doubts fate and even the purity of love of his wife. He himself ended his own happiness by following his insecure nature . Here the speaker deserves to be left alone, while Mathew got the appropriate punishment. Dukes step of killing his wife is not justified and Poe should not be punished because he already bears a terrible loss.

References: Allan Casson. English literature and composition. Second edition. John Wiley& sons, (2007) pp. 24-25 Kennedy, Richard S, and Donald S. Hair. The Dramatic Imagination of Robert Browning: A Literary Life. Columbia: University of Missouri Press,( 2007). Internet resource. pp. 200 Dawn B. Sova. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, (2007). Internet resource. pp. 25 Amanda Naylor & Audery wood. Teaching poetry. Reading and responding to the poetry in secondary classroom. Routledge, (2012) pp. 26-28