Tuesday, April 29....day 1 "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

Due Friday: vocabulary quiz on "Duchess" words. Copy of yesterday's handout is on Monday's blog.
  If you were absent yesterday, you are responsible for the material on the handout "Dover Beach".  This is a graded assignment.

In class: we are beginning  the poem "The Last Duchess" by Robert Browning. At the close of class today, you are responsible for having completed the first page. This will be graded as a writing assignment, separate from the questions associated with the poem. You have 25 minutes to complete the first page; then I'll collect your work and return it tomorrow. At that point, we'll listen to poem twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xIVg0qwTj4&src_vid=3Irb-P1nDAE&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_980145

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My Last Duchess by Robert Browning                    graphic organizer                       

In reading Robert Browning's Renaissance-set dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess,"  bear in mind that "Browning is not primarily concerned to tell a story. . . or describe a mood . . .: his aim is to depict a man as he is, with such autobiographical flashbacks as may be necessary to explain the character of the speaker" (Ian Jack, Browning's Major Poetry, p. 196). In his psychological portrait of the Duke of Ferrara Browning was as much inspired by his general notions of Italian court portraiture as he was by any specific individual--and yet there is an actual historical figure behind the poem.

Anticipatory statement:

From reading the above background information, in approximately 50 words, write what you anticipate this poem to be about. Reread the above text carefully and paraphrase as needed. Use complete sentences.

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The poem is of the type called a dramatic monologue because it consists entirely of the words of a single speaker (persona) who reveals in his speech his own nature and the dramatic situation in which he finds himself. The dramatic monologue reveals its own place and time as it proceeds to uncover the psychology of the speaker at a significant moment in his or her life.

Name two works of modernist literature that employ the literary technique of a dramatic dialogue.

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3.       What literary technique was coupled with the dramatic monologue that made reflected a modernism?

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My Last Duchess  by Robert Browning

 Duchess (n.) – the wife or widow of a duke (the male ruler of a duchy; the sovereign of a small

state)

 Frà (n.) – a title given to an Italian monk or friar (a Catholic man who has withdrawn from the

world for religious reasons)

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                    5 “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)         10 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                       15 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          20 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,                      25 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,     30          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             35 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           40 Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made 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;   45                        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          50 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,              55 Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

1.       List the specific words that are used to describe the Duchess and what this suggests about the relationship with the narrator. 2.       What does the Duke mean by “that piece” (line 3)       3.       What words indicate Frà Pandolf’s career? 4.       To whom is the Duke speaking? 5.       Reread the first 8 lines. Who else is speaking? 6.       To what is the Duke referring when he says ‘that pictured countenance” in line 7? 7.       Explain what the stranger “read[s]” in lines 6–7, “for never read / Strangers like you that pictured countenance.” What might read mean here? 8.       What are some words that the Duke uses to describe the “glance” in line 8? 9.       Reread the poem independently 10.   This is a dramatic monologue. Drama means story; hence contains literary elements. a.       Who are the characters in the poem? b.      Write a succinct summary of the plot. 11.   Paraphrase the lines “Strangers like you always ask me, if they dare, how the Duchess came to look that way in the portrait.” 12.   Give two reasons that the the Duke might mention Frà Pandolf twice in the first six lines of the poem? 13.   In line 11, what do the words “if they durst” suggest about the Duke’s view of himself? 14.   What does the Duke imply when he uses the word “only” in line 14? 15.   What does the phrase “that spot of joy” suggest about the Duchess? What does the Duke imply in lines 15–19 might have caused such an expression?  16.   What does the Duke imply when he remarks that, “such stuff / Was courtesy she thought, and cause enough / For calling up that spot of joy” (lines 19–21)?  17.   Reread lines 21–22: “She had a heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad / Too easily impressed…” What is the effect of the repetition in these lines? Respond in a complete sentence. 18.   What does the Duke mean by “the dropping of daylight in the West” (line 26)? 19.   What does the Duke mean when he claims the Duchess’s “looks went everywhere”? 19. 20.   What does the Duke mean by the “gift of a nine-hundred years old name” (line 32)? And 20. From the Duke’s perspective, how does the Duchess value this gift? 21.   What might the Duke mean when he states, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together” in lines 45–46? 21. 22.   How does the repetition of the phrase “as if alive” in lines 2 and 47 impact the poem? 23.   The word object: a.       What does the word object mean in line 53? b.      What other meaning does the word object have? c.       What is the impact of Browning’s choice to use the word object in this line? c. 24.   What does the Duke ask the listener to “notice” as they go downstairs? 24.