My Last Duchess Poetic Devices

Devices

Example / further detail

So what?

Conversational tone – the language directs the listener

‘Will’t please you…’ ‘Nay, we’ll go together down, sir.’

The speaker, The Duke, is talking to a visitor. It is meant to sound like one half of a conversation.

Disjointed thoughts – his sentences are frequently interrupted

‘Somehow - I know not how –‘; (since none puts by the curtain…)

Some of these stops and starts are responses to what the listener has said, others are his own interruptions. In either case, he will carry on regardless!

Urgent continuous pace

No verses. The poem moves relentlessly on.

The Duke will not be stopped. He is in charge.

Convoluted syntax

Lines 35 -…