Analyzing of "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, and opinions.

The poem "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, is a dramatic monologue that consists of only one stanza and has a rhyme scheme of ABABB. The diction throughout the whole poem is formal English. The poem starts off describing the seeting in which the story inside the poem takes place.

The rain set early in to-night,

The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

And did its worst to vex the lake:

I listened with heart fit to break.

These first five lines set up the feeling of suspense by the atmosphere presented. The first and second line explains how the rain and harsh winds had started early that night. You can start to imagine the dark sky and the rain falling down gloomily, while the wind whistles sadly through the trees giving it a cold, eerie feeling. It goes on to describe how the winds tore at the elm treetops as if in a revengeful way; all the while it also grimly distrubs the lake.

Photogravure of Robert Browning, 1865, printed c. ...

English: Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning a...

English: 1881 caricature of Robert Browning: scann...

The last line shown there is where you are first introduced to the speaker, who is a man, that lives in a cottage somewhere probably in the countryside. He says he listened with heart fit to break, meaning, he listened whith some sort of compassion that was getting ready to soon rupture.

When glided in Porphyria; straight

She shut the cold out and the storm,

And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

Which done, she rose, and from her form

The next lines bring along a new character, a woman named Porphyria. The woman is described as gliding in, and this gives you a sense of her being very graceful, and gives you the imagery of her being delicate for...