Porphyria's Lover Essay Plan

At the start of the poem, the poet uses personification to create a furious, disturbing atmosphere:

The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite

* he thus prepares the reader for what is to come in the poem
* ‘Sullen’ and ‘spite’ suggest intense emotions - jilted lover destroying the countryside.
* contrast with the entrance of Porphyria -‘glided in’.
* raises the reader’s expectations that this will be a passionate love poem; makes her murder all the more shocking.

The poet uses understatement to create a sinister mood when the speaker kills his lover:

I found
A thing to do … And strangled her.

* ‘A thing to do’ rather than a cold blooded murder.
* ‘found’ this implies that he is not responsible.
* dispassionate language: he winds her hair three times around her little throat.
* either he fooled her by pretending this was a game; or, in reality, she struggled as he throttled her.
* ‘And strangled her.’ is the first sentence in the poem which ends in the middle of a line rather than at the end - creates a sense of shock for the reader; shows how the killer does not grasp what he has done.

The poet continues with an impassive tone when he reflects on her death, employing repetition for emphasis:

No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.

* follows ‘And strangled her.’ - as if he is justifying his actions
* Repetition of ‘pain’; and rephrases it as ‘I am quite sure …’ - in his heart, he has his doubts.
* he feels the need to try to persuade the reader he was sure

The poet uses romantic imagery to describe Porpyria after her death:

again / Laugh’d the blue eyes without a stain

* the murder is not real to him.
* personifies her blue eyes as ‘laughing’ - a sweet image
* sees her as a living person despite what he has done.

Finally, the poet uses an ironically upbeat tone in the last line of the poem:

And yet God has not said a word!

* you would not expect God to speak.
* using the present tense – leaves the reader guessing what will happen next.
* by ending the poem at this point, we are left with the speaker’s intense feelings at this moment in time.
* we are not confronted with the consequences of her death.
* implies that there may a punishment waiting for him in the afterlife.

Therefore, Browning’s ironic use of romantic, upbeat and understated tones show the strange state of mind of the speaker in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. He uses repetition, structure and personification to reveals the strange, obsessive emotions which cause the murder.