Poetic Form

"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning
lines 43-48

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;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive.Will't please you rise? We'll meet
the company below, then.


The duke is telling another person this story while they are both looking at his previous duchess' portrait. The duchess smiled a great deal every time I saw her, but how many other people did she openly smile at also? She kept smiling at other people and would not stop, then she stopped smiling altogether because she died. She looks alive in the picture. Let's go downstairs and meet the others downstairs.

The poetic form of the content helps to enhance the readers understanding of the story that is being told. In line 47, the Duke asks the person to rise and leave where they are to go meet the guests downstairs. If this was to be read in prose, all the reader would get from the Dukes' statement is that he wants to go downstairs to meet the rest of the guests. On the other hand, if it is read in its poetic form, the duke's huge transition from talking about her portrait to suddenly wanting to leave and go downstairs shows a sense of urgency. The sudden transition shows that the Duke might have told his guest a great deal to much about the situation of his previous duchess, and is now trying to urgently start a new topic to skew the other man from thinking about the situation of the previous duchess to much.

The poetic form used by Browning also alters the meaning between the prose version and the original, poetic, version. When read in prose the statement "I gave commands" could mean that the duke gave commands to her Duchess not to smile at so many people, because he was getting jealous. When read in its poetic form, it is obvious that he was getting extremely jealous and that the commands that he gave were not to her, but most likely orders to other men to have her murdered.

It is seen throughout the entire poem that the Duke was getting more and more jealous as time went on, and could not take it anymore. Such as in lines 30-34, he compares himself to others, basically saying that his presence should not be taken for granted. The duke also states the he chooses "never to stoop", saying that he would not even talk to her about his problem. This makes it more believable that he had the duchess murdered.
The duke had a problem with other people getting the same attention from the duchess that he was getting, so now he gets to control who gets to see the duchess' beautiful smile. He controls it by putting the portrait o her behind a curtain, which to me, shows a psychotic side of the duke.