• Home
  • Mr. E.'s Reading Lab
    • The Middle Ages >
      • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight >
        • Sir Gawain Part 1a
        • Sir Gawain Part 1b
        • Sir Gawain Part 2a
        • Sir Gawain Part 2b
        • Sir Gawain Part 3a
        • Sir Gawain Part 3b
        • Sir Gawain Part 4a
        • Sir Gawain Part 4b
      • The Canterbury Tales >
        • from The Canterbury Tales "Prologue"
        • The Prioress' Tale
        • The Wife of Bath's Tale
        • The Pardoner's Tale
    • The Renaissance >
      • Macbeth >
        • Macbeth, Act I
        • Macbeth, Act II
        • Macbeth, Act III
        • Macbeth, Act IV
        • Macbeth, Act V
      • Hamlet >
        • Hamlet, Act I
        • Hamlet, Act II
        • Hamlet, Act III
        • Hamlet, Act IV
        • Hamlet, Act V
    • Age of Reason >
      • The Lady's Dressing Room
      • A Satirical Elegy
      • A Modest Proposal
      • Essay on Man, Part 1
    • The Romantic Period >
      • Frankenstein >
        • The Letters
        • Chapters 1 - 4
        • Chapters 5 - 6
        • Chapters 7 - 10
        • Chapters 11 - 12
        • Chapters 13 - 15
        • Chapters 16 - 17
        • Chapters 18 - 20
        • Chapters 21 - 23
        • Chapter 24
      • Elegy in a Country Churchyard
      • She Walks in Beauty
      • Rime of the Ancient Mariner Parts I-IV
      • Rime of the Ancient Mariner Parts V-VII
      • Ozymandias
      • Ode to a Nightingale
      • To a Skylark
      • Westminster Bridge
      • We Are Seven
      • To Autumn
      • A Noiseless, Patient Spider
    • Victorian Period >
      • The Highwayman
      • The Darkling Thrush
      • Porphyria's Lover
      • The Forsaken Merman
      • The Lady of Shalott
      • My Last Duchess
      • The Wreck of the Hesperus
      • The Bishop Orders His Tomb
      • Goblin Market
      • Heather Ale
      • The Yarn of the Nancy Bell
      • Dover Beach
    • The Modern Age >
      • The Hollow Men
  • UIL
    • UIL MEETS CALENDAR
    • Conflict Pattern
    • Ready Writing
    • Spelling & Vocabulary
    • Literary Criticism
  • HCISD CALENDAR
  • Contact Mr. E.
  EVERETT'S ENGLISH HUB
Picture
missryansgcseenglish.files.wordpress.com/

My Last Duchess
by Robert Browning


THAT’S my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said                5
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)    
                      10
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps     
                  15
Frà Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:” such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough        20
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad.
Too easily impressed: she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,      
                 25
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,        30
Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill        
               35
In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set       
                40
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;        45
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence       
                50
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,    
                       55
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! 



my last duchess
by robert browning (1842)

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.