Homework
Due: Tuesday 19th April
Using the booklet you were issued with read the following poem and begin to build your understanding of it:
Task - (you can research using the Internet etc to help you answer the following questions)
Write answers to the following questions in your booklet in full sentences:
a) Why does the writer use enjambment?
b) Who is the speaker in the poem?
c) Is the Duke a likeable character? Explain your answer.
d) Is the Duchess a likeable character? Explain your answer.
Aiming for the A extension task - How is the theme of power presented in the poem?
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
"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)
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
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
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,
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,
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
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
Her wits to yours,
forsooth, and make 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;
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 pretense
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,
Which Claus of
Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
