Separation
Hello friends,
My God, am I so distracted right now! My dad is blasting the Bourne Supremacy and I keep hearing random lines like: "Turn here, cut through the field!" "Alright you keep going to the shack" "It's them, it's Treadstone..." "Yes you do!" Oh, and my brother's listening to some goa music in the other room! Anyway, the Brownings, the Brownings...where to begin?
I guess I'll just start by saying that I personally liked Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" more than Sonnet XXII by Elizabeth Barrett, which is why I will discuss it instead of the latter. I think it's a wonderful dramatic monologue, and I love how, as you go through it, not only do you learn about the last duchess, but you uncover more and more about the Duke himself. For instance, he scorns his deceased wife for once being too polite, too grateful and for being easily amused and impressed by the small things in life:
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.
He makes it sound like it's a bad thing to be happy! Nevertheless, what else can you expect from a man who is selfish, pompous, manipulative, commanding, and obsessed with his own family's name?
I enjoy this poem quite a bit. It feels nice on the tongue, and it's pleasing to be the fly on the wall during a conversation where a man makes himself seem like not only an asshole but a murderer! But aside from the Duke, something else that I really enjoyed about "My Last Duchess," is that there is large space between the poet and the character in the poem. Although Browning is recounting the life of Alfonso II (duke of Italy) it's nice to hear it as a story, rather than someone's direct feelings on the subject. Sometimes I find it very hard to separate the poet from the work. I am always very curious about why the author writes something they do and what the poem means to them. However, I think Browning did a fine job at keeping himself out of this poem, and I must admit, I rather like it.
My God, am I so distracted right now! My dad is blasting the Bourne Supremacy and I keep hearing random lines like: "Turn here, cut through the field!" "Alright you keep going to the shack" "It's them, it's Treadstone..." "Yes you do!" Oh, and my brother's listening to some goa music in the other room! Anyway, the Brownings, the Brownings...where to begin?
I guess I'll just start by saying that I personally liked Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" more than Sonnet XXII by Elizabeth Barrett, which is why I will discuss it instead of the latter. I think it's a wonderful dramatic monologue, and I love how, as you go through it, not only do you learn about the last duchess, but you uncover more and more about the Duke himself. For instance, he scorns his deceased wife for once being too polite, too grateful and for being easily amused and impressed by the small things in life:
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.
He makes it sound like it's a bad thing to be happy! Nevertheless, what else can you expect from a man who is selfish, pompous, manipulative, commanding, and obsessed with his own family's name?
I enjoy this poem quite a bit. It feels nice on the tongue, and it's pleasing to be the fly on the wall during a conversation where a man makes himself seem like not only an asshole but a murderer! But aside from the Duke, something else that I really enjoyed about "My Last Duchess," is that there is large space between the poet and the character in the poem. Although Browning is recounting the life of Alfonso II (duke of Italy) it's nice to hear it as a story, rather than someone's direct feelings on the subject. Sometimes I find it very hard to separate the poet from the work. I am always very curious about why the author writes something they do and what the poem means to them. However, I think Browning did a fine job at keeping himself out of this poem, and I must admit, I rather like it.