Porphyria's Lover

I think the main way Browning has told the poem ‘Porphyria’s Lover is through the use of imagery. While reading the poem there are lots of quotes that allow you to really get a sense of what is happening. The first quote that I thought had a clear image was “the rain set early in to-night, the sullen wind was soon awake”, I think this was a really good opening for the poem because it really describes the setting leaving a fixed image in your mind of the dark, storminess of the night. This quote also casts a shadow over the rest of the poem as it leads you to know that the poem will be dark just like the setting. “When glided in Porphyria; straight”, this quote shows the beauty of the character Porphyria. When you read the word glide, you can tell that the narrator sees her as an angelic figure, showing his love and affection towards her. You can see the character is gliding towards him showing her power and confidence over him. “Made the cheerless grate blaze up, and all the cottage warm” this is showing the warmth and the ‘cosiness’ of the situation, we as readers have the picture in our minds of the two being, not just in a house but a home - a home being somewhere they are comfortable in together, again, showing their affection. This leaves us completely unexpectant as to the murder at the end of the poem. Browning also tells the story through each characters power. “Made my cheek lie there”, this shows the power of Porphyria, the word made shows it was a forced action therefore placing Porphyria in a powerful position. There is a contrast between this and another quote as this one shows her power, putting her across as strong, but the poem then goes on to say ‘she too weak for her hearts endeavour’ to show that really, beneath the power she is actually weak, and that while showing her feelings towards the narrator she isn’t as confident as meets the eye. “Her cheek once more blush’d bright benesth my burning kiss”, this quote is showing the narrators power, in my opinion this quote is representing him draining her power, I think this because it’s the line in which she is casting her spell for the last time. Then it goes on to say “my burning kiss”, this part of the quote shows that now he has the power and that the kiss is HIS and she can’t take control anymore. “Only this time my shoulder bore her head”, this is when we realise that now the narrator has all of the power. At the beginning of the poem we read that Porphyria’s shoulder bore his head but now he is finally in control things have swapped around. After listening to the class’ discussion on the poem my opinion on of it is that he (the narrator) had taken Porphyria’s virginity but now, as she is not “perfectly pure and good” anymore he feels that she may fall out of love with him so he murdered her in order to keep her for himself.