Coming up: new vocabulary for quiz on Wednesday, November 15 / class handout / copy below
Final Hamlet projects due Friday. Don't be late! You may always bring in or send your project early.
In class: vocabulary quiz. Personalized graphic organizer on "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning. class handout / copy below
I would like you to turn to your neighbor and discuss for two minutes what is power and where does it come from. Be prepared to share.
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NAME_________________________________
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.
1.
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2.
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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withdrawn from the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!
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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 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.
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“My Last
Duchess” by Robert Browning vocabulary. Quiz
on Wednesday, November 8
1. countenance (noun)- a person’s face or
facial expression
2. mantle (noun)- a loose sleeveless cloak or
shawl, worn especially by women.
3. bough (noun)- a main branch of a tree.
4. trifling (noun or adjective)- unimportant
or trivial.
5. officious (adjective)- assertive of
authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or
trivial matters.
6. munificence (noun)- the quality or action
of being lavishly generous; great generosity.
7. dowry (noun)- the money, goods, or estate
that a woman brings to her husband in marriage
8. to avow (verb)- to declare or state
(something) in an open and public way
9. dramatic monologue- (noun) -a literary work
(as a poem) in which a speaker's character is revealed in a monologue usually
addressed to a second person
10. earnest-(adjective)- a serious and
intent mental state
