The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
And laid her soiled gloves by, untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sat down by my side
And called me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me—-she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me for ever.
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could to-night's gay feast restrain
A sudden thought of one so pale
For love of her, and all in vain:
So, she was come through wind and rain.
Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily oped her lids: again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untightened next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
I propped her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorned at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gained instead!
Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!
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HE IS MARVALLOUS POET
From guest AMME (contact)
I LIKE THE POSSESIVENESS OF THE POET.IT HAS THE VALUEBLE MEANING. -
allways going to be a fav
written at a time of religious conraversy the last cuplet of this poem would have certainly cause some contraversy. i will always love this poem- i always have. the abnormally possesive lover in this poem expresses his desire that this particually intense moment of love will last forever, but his was of imortilasing that moment is, to say the least, unuasual -
What effect does that have on a reader?
From guest jade (contact)
The rain set early in to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break. When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; -
very emotional written I would say this poem is so free in its emotions I actually fogoet about Emily dickson and Emily barring
Robert Browning is really good -
This poem is historically misinterpreted
For more than a century Robert Browning's classical poem Porphyria's Lover has been misinterpreted. It has been totally misread as representing wanton acts of depraved sexuality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Porphyria's Lover is about euthanasia, plain and simple. Again, as with my take on After Apple Picking by Robert Frost, which can be found at http://whendarknessfell.tripod.com/ the literary world has chosen to ignore what I have, via another carefully written essay, correctly argued; go to http://porphyriaslover.tripod.com/ In reference to the perceived feasibility of my argument I am herewith soliciting learned opinion by inviting comments, pro or con. Please go to my website and contribute to be a part of some revolutionary thinking. Cheers, J.T. Best -
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where is your proof- your argument, your sources? i went on your website but coudl only find you saying it was euthanasia- and then leaving at that giving me nothing to back up that statement!
prehaps i missed a link on your site- if that is the case please send me the link that contains your actual proof or at least an argument, rather than an insubstatial statement.
thanking you in anticipation
cassie
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a favorite
Since high school, this has been one of my favorite poems. I always loved the beautiful horror of it. It has an important message - a love triangle never ends well - someone always gets hurt.
I found it both enchanting and frightening that he kills Porphyria and keeps her dead body with him to contemplate all night. It's beautiful yet disturbing. Love at its best and worst.
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out of the entire piece my favorite line is:
And thus we sit together now,
I usually don't quote from poems, I find it to be a nuisance in my comment(s) but quoting also, I feel, should be reserved for those lines that really grab at us -- and that line really grabbed at me because that's the most visual and horrid line in the entire piece, I feel.
imagine sitting next to a dead body in wait, especially after you killed the person.
besides for a few enjambments that I didn't really care for, an excellent piece that Browning has written here.
this would be a great poem read on Halloween.
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Notice that this is very similar to the song "stand inside your love" by the smashing pumpkins...
It seems the image of strangling is apparent in both Stand Inside your Love and Porphyria’s Lover. In Porphyria’s Lover, the character/narrator uses the hair of his lover to strangle her. “ In one long yellow string I wound, Three times her little throat around and strangled her.” All this signifies, is that it’s a literal; image of murder and control. You can almost picture the woman being strangled. The man actually murders her in the poem. In the song “Stand Inside Your Love” by the Smashing Pumpkins, a similar image of strangling is created. He uses a figurative “strangulation” image. “I’ll wrap my wire around your heart and your mind”. He is saying, figuratively speaking of course, that he will wrap his “wire” meaning his love around her “heart”, which symbolizes her love. He wants to hold onto her love no matter what. He is being selfish and is not allowing anyone else to have a chance to love her. Both poems have the strong use of the imagery of strangulation, and it is evident that a strong emotion is being sent through such strong words.
The image and sense of purity is also apparent in both writes. In Porphyria’s Lover, the image of purity appears a couple times. When he mentions her eyes, “Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.” the suggestion of her eyes notes that the narrator thinks that she has been purified after he has killed her, that she has been brought back to her "virginal state" Also, he mentions that “she is mine, mine, fair, perfectly pure and good” as soon as he kills her, signifying that no one else can love her, because she is forever his. In Standing Inside Your Love, he mentions how pure the woman really is. When he says “A pure soul and beautiful you”, he is explaining that she is pure, and untouched, and she can be his. The odd thing is that he mentions this before he kills her, which is contradictory to Porphyria’s Lover. Both of these works seem oddly similar with the common use of imagery.
It seems that Billy Corgan may have been inspired by this write while he wrote this song. So many similarities. -
Wow this is by far my favorite poem I have ever read in my life it is acctually on my page! I read this poem for class and I fell in love with it for his time period its so morbid yet wonderful I agree with Judas Denied in saying the he far surpassed his wife! I love his words and the pictures they creatre of a rain storm with prophyria rushing to him in their little private get away and even though shes cheating its beautiful! The way she takes her hair down and he touches her its magic! The love they share then she confesses to him her love and in his obsession with her, his very large obsession he takes her life not to well.... end he being but to keep her with him for ever she will be only his no leaving or having to run to him when she can get away you his. Its beautiful...
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From this poem he became my fav author. I've read others but this was the first and it's always the first you remember most. I just love the irony and imagrey he uses. A true master at his game. *sighs dreamily* We can only hope to achieve such greatness.
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This is one of my favourite poems because the style is clearly not modern, nor is it overly flowery and difficult ot understand. It also slips a sneaky twist into the end, turning what may be a love poem into a tragedy, the places the concept of God into it, where God may not exist in the narrator's world.
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very good
What a great poem it rhymes wey!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i really enjoyed learnin about this poem and readin it but i began to dislike it once i got to the stage of writing an assignment on it lol not so easy and enjoyable -
very well done
its sad that everyone else doesnt realy understand the true understanding of this poem -
great
a great poem. doing it for english and loving it -
Wonderrful
Nice poem. One of the most entertaining poems ever -
What a wonderful twist at the end! This is fantastic! I absolutely adored the meter! Robert Browning was a talented poet, indeed! I will definitely be reading more! Naena
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It's intersting all right. I did NOT expect for that to happen at the end. Wow, very different. I loved the rhyming structure, though. That was a piece of brilliance right there. Browning is definitly one of a kind.
*Kate* -
One of the most morbid writes from this period I have ever read. I feel that he far surpassed his wife in talent, not only with imagery, but with imagination. A sociopathic rant it reads to me. The calm confession of a murder. I enjoy the deliberation here, the "should I, shouldn't I" feel that it has. Also what strikes me is that he only kills her seemingly after he discovers the true depth of her feelings for him. It's quite mad, yet still in some way makes a strange kind of sense to me. On my top ten list of all time favorite poems.
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ahhh....this is such a gorgeous poem...i love it more than any poem.
Some notes i took in an english class where we discussed this poem:
-tetrameter (4 feet), with 3x rhyming scheme in one line.
-pathetic fallacie in first few lines...
-stages of undress suggest erotic nature
-she is unable to follow up on her hearts desire which is the narrators complaint on her inconsistancy
-he makes her choose and change, but she wont
-her death is thought to bring her purity, the suggestion of unclean and taintedness, demonstrates this.
-the suggestion of her clear eyes notes that the narrator thinks that she has been purified after he has killed her, that she has been brought back to her "virginal state"
I have more...but i lost the paper that i wrote it on...i can't say how much i adore this work, most work by Browning actually. He was such a vivid and descriptive writer when it came to the macabre, there was also always some sort of hint of the erotic in those works.
Nyx... -
well, quite a few of his poems have rather psycho men. But i live the sh
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I teach this to many classes and it retains their interest more than most other poems its age. I like it because it is both challenging and simple and it is extremely well crafted.
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Horrifying and beautiful.
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pretty good poem, interesting
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this guy is insane he talks about nonense his words dont conjugate at all. nevertheless... i like it.
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Chilling to say the least and it never fails to stick in your mind. Browning, always leaving it up to us, the reader, to justify the action of purely...savoring a perfect moment of love?
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