Porphyria's Love

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Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning

‘Porphyria’s Lover’ by Robert Browning, is a poem about the narrator, Porphyria’s lover, killing his lover, Porphyria, because he doesn’t want her feelings towards him to change. He wants Porphyria to spend the rest of her life with him, so he murders her, yet does not feel a single bit guilty.

        At the start of the poem, an unpleasant tone is given as ‘the rain set early in’ and ‘the sullen wind was soon awake’. The word ‘sullen’ means gloomy and sulky, showing that the scene was cheerless as the narrator awaits for Porphyria. A creepily obsessive town is also presented after Porphyria enters the cottage. The narrator watches her withdraw the ‘dripping cloak and shawl’ and let her ‘damp hair fall.’ This suggests that he is watching Porphyria’s every move and eyeing every single little detail.

        A nonchalant tone is soon created when Porphyria put her lover’s ‘arm about her waist’. This shows that Porphyria’s lover does not care and may be a bit angry because she did not just go straight to him when she walked through the door, but took off her coat and dried herself first. A nonchalant tone is also created when the narrator has killed Porphyria. He does think for a second about what he has done, but he still does not care. Porphyria’s lover thinks that he has done the correct thing as ‘god has not yet said a word.’

        The poem is written in a combination of end rhyme and rhyming couplets. The rhyme scheme changes constantly from one to the other, to represent the constant change of the narrator’s mood. At first, he has a worshipping love as he awaits for Porphyria to arrive. Rhyming couplets are demonstrated here in ‘awake...lake’. The mood is then changed to an obsessive love as he watches her every move. End rhyme is shown here in ‘warm...form’. The rhyming is regularly changing, just like the mood. The narrator has a psychotic love because he doesn’t feel guilt after he kills Porphyria and then a strange love, with a mental instability, as he sits with his lover all night.

        All throughout the poem, there is a steady rhythm. Two rhyme schemes are used. These are end rhyme and rhyming couplets, making it fast. However, punctuation is used, slowing the rhythm down. The rhythm is constant to represent the flow of the narrator’s thoughts, for example, ‘and, stooping, made my cheek lie there’. Monosyllabic words are also used throughout the poem but, the use of rhyming balances out the speed of the poem.

        The poet, Robert Browning, uses a lot of imagery to portray the narrator’s feelings. Firstly, the simile ‘as a shut bud that holds a bee,’ has been used. This suggests that Porphyria is trapped with her lover forever, just like a bee being trapped inside the bud of a flower. Also, the poet uses a metaphor when he uses the word ‘glided’ to describe the way that Porphyria entered the house. It shows the narrator’s worshipping love for Porphyria because he thinks of her as being an angel, as humans do not glide.