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Porphyria's Lover
This carefully crafted ebook: "Porphyria's Lover (Complete Edition)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "Porphyria's Lover" is Browning's first ever short dramatic monologue, and also the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology. In the poem, a man strangles his lover – Porphyria – with her hair. Porphyria's lover then talks of the corpse's blue eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of perfect happiness the murder gives him. Although he winds her hair around her throat 3 times to throttle her, the woman never cries out. The poem uses a somewhat unusual rhyme scheme: A,B,A,B,B, the final repetition bringing each stanza to a heavy rest. Robert Browning (1812–1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, and in particular the dramatic monologue, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humor, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. The speakers in his poems are often musicians or painters whose work functions as a metaphor for poetry.This carefully crafted ebook: "Porphyria's Lover (Complete Edition)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "Porphyria's Lover" is Browning's first ever short dramatic monologue, and also the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology. In the poem, a man strangles his lover – Porphyria – with her hair. Porphyria's lover then talks of the corpse's blue eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of perfect happiness the murder gives him. Although he winds her hair around her throat 3 times to throttle her, the woman never cries out. The poem uses a somewhat unusual rhyme scheme: A,B,A,B,B, the final repetition bringing each stanza to a heavy rest.
2 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1842
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About the author
Robert Browning
2,699 books449 followersRobert Browning (1812-1889) was a British poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
Browning began writing poetry at age 13. These poems were eventually collected, but were later destroyed by Browning himself. In 1833, Browning's "Pauline" was published and received a cool reception. Harold Bloom believes that John Stuart Mill's review of the poem pointed Browning in the direction of the dramatic monologue.
In 1845, Browning wrote a letter to the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, professing that he loved her poetry and her. In 1846, the couple eloped to Europe, eventually settling in Florence in 1847. They had a son Pen.
Upon Elizabeth Barrett Browning's death in 1861, Browning returned to London with his son. While in London, he published Dramatis Personae (1864) and The Ring and the Book (1869), both of which gained him critical priase and respect. His last book Asolando was published in 1889 when the poet was 77.
In 1889, Browning traveled to Italy to visit friends. He died in Venice on December 12 while visiting his sister.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
February 4, 2021
robby b sure does love killing women in his poems
February 24, 2019
So twisted and creepy. I think Browning just might have become my favorite poet after Keats and Yeats.
October 5, 2022
I have nothing against the poem it’s just not memorable. The concept is captivating and quite interesting but still not enough for me to talk about it in the future or at all.
October 5, 2021
Ok what the hell did I just read?!
So... he killed her?? WHY??? LIKE WHY???
So... he killed her?? WHY??? LIKE WHY???
February 28, 2017
"Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Poryphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do."
"Poryphyria's Lover" is genius in how the true drama of the situation unfolds and how the narrator is slowly revealed to be absolutely insane. Beginning with a depiction of dark feelings, Poryphyria's entrance into the scene creates the illusion of warmth and safety, leading to a wonderfully gothic twist and gruesome aftermath. This was a fun one to read in my literature class.
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Poryphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do."
"Poryphyria's Lover" is genius in how the true drama of the situation unfolds and how the narrator is slowly revealed to be absolutely insane. Beginning with a depiction of dark feelings, Poryphyria's entrance into the scene creates the illusion of warmth and safety, leading to a wonderfully gothic twist and gruesome aftermath. This was a fun one to read in my literature class.
April 29, 2020
This poem is beautiful in the most sick and twisted way. Love the setting, love the symbolism, love the unexpected ending. As the poem progresses we think that the poet is probably a sick and delirious person by the way he describes his surroundings and porphyria but the last line 'and yet God has not said a word' screams that he was very much in his senses.
February 22, 2022
This is one of my favorite poems! It's a little creepy, but immensely intriguing.
Dramatic monologues are certainly interesting, especially since they're usually a villain character boasting of his villainly deeds. The speaker in this poem reminds me a little of the narrator in Poe's "A Tell-Tale Heart." He's definitely insane.
Dramatic monologues are certainly interesting, especially since they're usually a villain character boasting of his villainly deeds. The speaker in this poem reminds me a little of the narrator in Poe's "A Tell-Tale Heart." He's definitely insane.
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March 1, 2021That is messed up, dude ...
September 22, 2022
lol! 👱🏻♀️🪢💀🪦
May 14, 2023
this one had me Choked up
January 25, 2025
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.
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.
October 3, 2024
Honestly… not bad if you like crime and reading disturbing thoughts.
- Short poem and it’s entertaining
- If you like to analyse, there is a lot to analyse and social commentary to draw on.
- Porphyria’s lover is a psycho with a god complex.
*Quotes incoming….*
────୨ৎ────
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair,”
“And strangled her. No pain felt she; / I am quite sure she felt no pain.”
“Murmuring how she loved me — she”
- Short poem and it’s entertaining
- If you like to analyse, there is a lot to analyse and social commentary to draw on.
- Porphyria’s lover is a psycho with a god complex.
*Quotes incoming….*
────୨ৎ────
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair,”
“And strangled her. No pain felt she; / I am quite sure she felt no pain.”
“Murmuring how she loved me — she”
October 19, 2021
Hmm was this better than My Last Duchess...perhaps.
May 30, 2024
Dark . Very dark .
October 8, 2024
A fine line between madness and passion— an attempt to preserve his love and achieve eternity with his lover, only to destroy its very essence.
September 14, 2025
Instantly became my favourite poem of all time.
August 5, 2024
Strange, intriguing, ridiculously creepy. Dark is a mild word for this.
December 9, 2024
Read this along side, “Incident In A Rose Garden,” in my english class so I thought I’d log them here for funnsies!
December 11, 2024
Thanks (?) Guerra
November 10, 2024
every poem I’ve read by this man is about him killing a woman. check the hard drive
February 17, 2015
After reading Porphyria's Lover a few time and hearing it read helped me understand it a little better. I don't fancy poetry all that much. The way I understood this poem was that they were having a clandestine affair and this might be their last rendezvous. When the lover is strangling her, she is not putting as sort of struggle.
September 26, 2014
My all time favourite poem. I fell in the love with the imagery and the characterizations.
April 10, 2023
Dark, thrilling and chilling
December 16, 2021
The poem opens with a venerable piece of nature-depiction. Adolescent and gorgeous Porphyria, separated from her lover by the barriers of social rank and birth, escaped from her house on a turbulent night, when feasting and merriment was going on.
We are told,
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…..
The wind is personified as a mediator of destruction, and thus the full fury and violence of the storm is brought home to the readers with a few, deft touches. The gale tore down the tops of elm-trees and ruffled the water of the lake, as if out of malice and contempt.
The language of the monologue is a model of articulateness and intelligibility. It is easy but dignified, and exclusively free from the obscurities and difficulties which tarnish so much of Browning’s poetry.
Some of its lines are delicate and fortuitous in their enunciation:
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily opened her lids.
Such lines have almost a Shakespearean felicity of expression.
While the language is crystal clear, it is the meaning of the poet, his purpose in writing the monologue that has baffled the critics.
Some have regarded it as a “social satire,” on the pride of rank and birth, others have called it a study in “morbid and abnormal psychology”.
Still others are of the view that in the monologue, the poet advocates an intrepid and avant-garde behaviour on the part of true lovers.
There is no doubt that Browning always commended bold action, even if it was considered inappropriate by society, as essential for success in love.
While there can be no doubt that the poet would like to hold out a bold action, like that of Porphyria, there is no justification for believing that he would go to the extent of advocating a murder even for the sake of love.
But the last line of the poem, and yet God has not said a word,” seems to entail divine endorsement, and so also of the Poet.
And then the question arises, as to why the lover committed the murder. Most critics are of the view that the lover was insane.
But this view is ruled out by the fact that the way in which he narrates the story does not point toward any mental disorder.
There is no incoherence in his narration. Another view is that the crime was committed, in a fleeting anomaly or even concentrated excitement of feeling.
But this view, too, cannot be upheld, for the lover does not feel any lament or repentance after the deed. He seems rather to be delighted and pompous of the murder he has committed.
Desperate deeds are often committed in moments of passionate mental agitation, but for ever afterwards there is remorse for them.
There is no remorse in the present case.
However it may be, the monologue is gripping in its interest. The deed round which the poem is built might be horrible, but still it carries its own charm and fascination. It might be one of the earliest of the poet’s monologues, but still it ranks very high as far as its intensity, its beauty, and its lucidity are concerned.
The poet has given us a peep into a human soul, it may be an abnormal one. The whole incident is narrated with such simplicity and naturalness that an act, which by all canons of law and judgment, is nothing ‘but mad and revolting, does not create any horror or aversion out mind.
We are told,
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…..
The wind is personified as a mediator of destruction, and thus the full fury and violence of the storm is brought home to the readers with a few, deft touches. The gale tore down the tops of elm-trees and ruffled the water of the lake, as if out of malice and contempt.
The language of the monologue is a model of articulateness and intelligibility. It is easy but dignified, and exclusively free from the obscurities and difficulties which tarnish so much of Browning’s poetry.
Some of its lines are delicate and fortuitous in their enunciation:
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily opened her lids.
Such lines have almost a Shakespearean felicity of expression.
While the language is crystal clear, it is the meaning of the poet, his purpose in writing the monologue that has baffled the critics.
Some have regarded it as a “social satire,” on the pride of rank and birth, others have called it a study in “morbid and abnormal psychology”.
Still others are of the view that in the monologue, the poet advocates an intrepid and avant-garde behaviour on the part of true lovers.
There is no doubt that Browning always commended bold action, even if it was considered inappropriate by society, as essential for success in love.
While there can be no doubt that the poet would like to hold out a bold action, like that of Porphyria, there is no justification for believing that he would go to the extent of advocating a murder even for the sake of love.
But the last line of the poem, and yet God has not said a word,” seems to entail divine endorsement, and so also of the Poet.
And then the question arises, as to why the lover committed the murder. Most critics are of the view that the lover was insane.
But this view is ruled out by the fact that the way in which he narrates the story does not point toward any mental disorder.
There is no incoherence in his narration. Another view is that the crime was committed, in a fleeting anomaly or even concentrated excitement of feeling.
But this view, too, cannot be upheld, for the lover does not feel any lament or repentance after the deed. He seems rather to be delighted and pompous of the murder he has committed.
Desperate deeds are often committed in moments of passionate mental agitation, but for ever afterwards there is remorse for them.
There is no remorse in the present case.
However it may be, the monologue is gripping in its interest. The deed round which the poem is built might be horrible, but still it carries its own charm and fascination. It might be one of the earliest of the poet’s monologues, but still it ranks very high as far as its intensity, its beauty, and its lucidity are concerned.
The poet has given us a peep into a human soul, it may be an abnormal one. The whole incident is narrated with such simplicity and naturalness that an act, which by all canons of law and judgment, is nothing ‘but mad and revolting, does not create any horror or aversion out mind.
December 22, 2021
i just remembered that i read this at the beginning of the year for a paper i had to write for my comp class and you bet i’m gonna count it towards my goal because this shit was weird and 100% the worst paper i have ever had to write.
i mean homebody strangles porphyria with her own hair because he wants her to stay as pure and adoring as she is in that moment. this is a victorian piece of literature through and through
i mean homebody strangles porphyria with her own hair because he wants her to stay as pure and adoring as she is in that moment. this is a victorian piece of literature through and through
May 16, 2017
I do not like Robert's work as well as Elizabeth's. This poem is definitely more on the disturbing side.
January 8, 2021
It wasn't as satisfactory.
February 7, 2022
iconic, read this the first time when i was 15
January 11, 2023
Chilling
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews