My Last Duchess - Robert Browning

“Since none puts by / The curtain I have drawn for you, but I”

• Curtain symbol.
• Shows he controlled her even in death.

“As if she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift.”

• Irony.
• Implies the Duke is jealous, despite his arrogance.

“This grew; I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.”

• This is one of the most famous lines in the poem – it implies that he had her killed.
• The use of caesura and short phrases highlight the swiftness, coldness and ruthlessness with which he disposed of her life.

"That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall”

• Possessive pronoun.
• Use of possessive pronoun “my” throughout links to the Duke’s view that his wife belonged to him.

“Will't please you sit and look at her?”

• Rhetorical question.
• The Duke is posing this as a question, but it is really a command. Emphasises his power and his pride.

“Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse”

• Boastful language to end the poem.
• Final impression of the duke.