Porphyria's Lover, Robert Browning

"Porphyria's Lover," which first appeared in 1836, is one of the earliest and most shocking of Browning's pieces of writing. The speaker in the poem lives in a cottage on the countryside. His lover, a beautiful young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring a warm feel to the cottage. She embraces the speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. "She put my arm about her waist, and made her smooth white shoulder bare."-line 17. The speaker tells us that he does not say a word to her. The speaker realizes that she "worship" him. "Murmuring how she loved me- she too weak, for all her heart's endeavor"- Line 21. Realizing that she will eventually give in to society's pressures, and wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps her hair around her neck and strangles her. " And strangled her; No pain felt she"- Line 41. After strangling her to death he then toys with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this way the entire night, the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him. "And yet God has not said a word!"-Line 60



Robert Browning was very found of Percy Bysshe Shelley for his writings. Browning was brilliant, undisciplined, and determined to be a poet like Percy Bysshe Shelley. My Last Duchess , and Porphyria 's Lover, open a door to a new way of expressing himself. However, Robert Browning did not have to worry about anything but writing, supported by his parents, he had the time and the availability to write.