My Last Duchess转摘
这篇书评可能有关键情节透露
Summary
This poem is set in 1564 and is based on the real-life Duke Alfonso II who ruled Ferrara, Italy in the latter half of the 16th century. In the poem, he’s talking about his first wife Lucrezia de’ Medici, who died under suspicious circumstances shortly after marrying the Duke.
In the poem the Duke is speaking to an emissary who is negotiating the Duke’s next marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. He is showing his visitor around his palace and stops in front of a painting of his late wife.
The Duke then begins to reminisce about his late wife’s portrait sessions with the painter, and then about the Duchess herself. His reminiscing soon turns into a verbal onslaught of his late wife’s behaviour, where he abjectly accuses her of being overly flirtatious with everyone, and not appreciating his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”. As his speech continues, the reader realises with ever more terrifying certainty that the Duke was responsible for the Duchess’s early demise, due to her worsening behaviour: “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”. After making this declaration, the Duke returns back to the discussion of arranging his next marriage. As the Duke and emissary leave to return to the other guests, the Duke calls attention to his bronze statue of Neptune taming a seahorse.
Structure and Language
This poem is a dramatic monologue which means it’s one person speaking through the whole poem. It’s written in iambic pentameter (same rhythm as much of Shakespeare’s work) and rhyming couplets. This means each pair of lines ends with rhyming words, for example: “ That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,/Looking as if she were alive. I call”
Because it’s a dramatic monologue, this poem is structured as a long speech, which is evident in its use of varied punctuation. All of the colons (:), dashes (-), commas (,) and full stops (.) are used to create the feeling of regular speech.
This poem is loaded with rhyme because of the rhyming couplets. However, it is also loaded with enjambment which can often mask the rhymes. Enjambment is when a line of poetry ends in the middle of a thought without any punctuation. When you read the poem, you generally read straight through to the next line and so you would not pause to emphasise the rhyming words at the ends of the lines. For example, “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame” you would read straight through name to finish the thought which ends at the full stop in the next line: “nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift.” Thus the rhyme of “name” and “blame” is masked.
The imagery in this poem is rather limited, reflecting the Duke’s admission that he is not “skilled in speech”. There is a lot of imagery about possessing objects, as well as an abundance of personal pronouns. This suggests the Duke’s selfish and self-important character.
Themes of this poem reflect on wealth, status, and pride. The Duke, though a wealthy and proud character, is not seen in a good light. Despite thinking very highly of himself, the Duke comes across to the readers as arrogant and unlikable. The reader also sees that money cannot buy happiness; although the Duke is wealthy, he is insecure and paranoid about his late wife’s behavior.
Overall, the author wittily shows that sometimes a person’s commentary on a subject tells you more about the person than the subject. In this case, the Duke’s repugnant personality is revealed through his commentary on his wife.
This poem is set in 1564 and is based on the real-life Duke Alfonso II who ruled Ferrara, Italy in the latter half of the 16th century. In the poem, he’s talking about his first wife Lucrezia de’ Medici, who died under suspicious circumstances shortly after marrying the Duke.
In the poem the Duke is speaking to an emissary who is negotiating the Duke’s next marriage to the daughter of another powerful family. He is showing his visitor around his palace and stops in front of a painting of his late wife.
The Duke then begins to reminisce about his late wife’s portrait sessions with the painter, and then about the Duchess herself. His reminiscing soon turns into a verbal onslaught of his late wife’s behaviour, where he abjectly accuses her of being overly flirtatious with everyone, and not appreciating his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”. As his speech continues, the reader realises with ever more terrifying certainty that the Duke was responsible for the Duchess’s early demise, due to her worsening behaviour: “I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”. After making this declaration, the Duke returns back to the discussion of arranging his next marriage. As the Duke and emissary leave to return to the other guests, the Duke calls attention to his bronze statue of Neptune taming a seahorse.
Structure and Language
This poem is a dramatic monologue which means it’s one person speaking through the whole poem. It’s written in iambic pentameter (same rhythm as much of Shakespeare’s work) and rhyming couplets. This means each pair of lines ends with rhyming words, for example: “ That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,/Looking as if she were alive. I call”
Because it’s a dramatic monologue, this poem is structured as a long speech, which is evident in its use of varied punctuation. All of the colons (:), dashes (-), commas (,) and full stops (.) are used to create the feeling of regular speech.
This poem is loaded with rhyme because of the rhyming couplets. However, it is also loaded with enjambment which can often mask the rhymes. Enjambment is when a line of poetry ends in the middle of a thought without any punctuation. When you read the poem, you generally read straight through to the next line and so you would not pause to emphasise the rhyming words at the ends of the lines. For example, “My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame” you would read straight through name to finish the thought which ends at the full stop in the next line: “nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift.” Thus the rhyme of “name” and “blame” is masked.
The imagery in this poem is rather limited, reflecting the Duke’s admission that he is not “skilled in speech”. There is a lot of imagery about possessing objects, as well as an abundance of personal pronouns. This suggests the Duke’s selfish and self-important character.
Themes of this poem reflect on wealth, status, and pride. The Duke, though a wealthy and proud character, is not seen in a good light. Despite thinking very highly of himself, the Duke comes across to the readers as arrogant and unlikable. The reader also sees that money cannot buy happiness; although the Duke is wealthy, he is insecure and paranoid about his late wife’s behavior.
Overall, the author wittily shows that sometimes a person’s commentary on a subject tells you more about the person than the subject. In this case, the Duke’s repugnant personality is revealed through his commentary on his wife.
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