Desire. Love. Death. Flowers are used to convey sentiments when speech fails. Their loveliness is associated with the fleeting beauty of women in their shared cycle of blooming, wilting, and finally death. To dry them in their prime preserves their beauty, but inevitably, some of it must be lost. The speakers in the poetry of Browning, Neruda, and Poe face the challenge of prickly desire and death of loved ones. “Porphyria’s Lover” and “Annabel Lee” display obsessive desire for a pure love. The speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” suggests love should be plucked as soon as it seems to bloom so that it can be admired for eternity, even at the cost of the lover. The use of dramatic monologue emphasizes the speaker’s projection.“Annabel Lee” on the
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This is evident in the juxtaposition of the Lover’s murder of Porphyria and how he portrays her afterwards. The speaker leaves his actions completely bare to the audience, simply stating how he “strangled her” (41). Yet he believes that she “felt” no “pain // As a shut bud that holds a bee” (41-43). The simile is such a gentle image, as if even though she was robbed of her life, Porphyria was wrapped in comfort, since “her darling one wish” was granted (57). He has to rationalize his actions by stating that she felt “no pain” (41-42) twice. In contrast, the tone in “Annabel Lee” allows the speaker’s heartache to come through in his view of the “chilling and killing” of Annabel Lee (26). Browning uses dramatic monologue to “distort” the woman “into what she is not” (Knoepflmacher pg. 159) Her feelings are a projection of the Lover, who has “‘monomaniacal self-love’” (Knoepflmacher pg. 154) and his actions are not condoned by Browning. While the speaker find the permanence he yearned for in death, not all lovers find death to be a union they …show more content…
For “Annabel Lee” their love, which was “was more than love” (9), is blasphemous as it caused the “angels” (22) to envy the lovers, and take Annabel Lee away from the speaker. Compared to the silence of God in “Porphyria's Lover,” perhaps it is the ostentatiousness of the lovers that threatens the encompassing love of God, forcing Him to act and condemn Annabel Lee to her death. However, since the “demons down under the sea”(31) also failed to “dissever” (32) their souls, their love transcends religion altogether. On the other hand, the speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” uses references to God to assure himself that his murder was not deplorable because He “has not said a word!” (60). Knoepflmacher finds this similarity with God’s silence and the speaker’s sullen reticence earlier in the poem to imply that the speaker has become God. (Knoepflmacher pg. 16) This would also echo the idolatrous imagery in the line that “Porphyria worshipped” (33) him. In Sonnet 89, the religious imagery is subtle. The “light and wheat” (2) connotation links the lover with Persephone, who because of her duty to bring springtime and vegetation into the world, must leave Hades every half-year. The speaker’s association with death suggests him to be Hades, whose “destiny” was “changed” because of the lover’s “softness” (4). This illumination also justifies why dying is interpreted as being “asleep” (5) because the speaker is confident
This is evident in the juxtaposition of the Lover’s murder of Porphyria and how he portrays her afterwards. The speaker leaves his actions completely bare to the audience, simply stating how he “strangled her” (41). Yet he believes that she “felt” no “pain // As a shut bud that holds a bee” (41-43). The simile is such a gentle image, as if even though she was robbed of her life, Porphyria was wrapped in comfort, since “her darling one wish” was granted (57). He has to rationalize his actions by stating that she felt “no pain” (41-42) twice. In contrast, the tone in “Annabel Lee” allows the speaker’s heartache to come through in his view of the “chilling and killing” of Annabel Lee (26). Browning uses dramatic monologue to “distort” the woman “into what she is not” (Knoepflmacher pg. 159) Her feelings are a projection of the Lover, who has “‘monomaniacal self-love’” (Knoepflmacher pg. 154) and his actions are not condoned by Browning. While the speaker find the permanence he yearned for in death, not all lovers find death to be a union they …show more content…
For “Annabel Lee” their love, which was “was more than love” (9), is blasphemous as it caused the “angels” (22) to envy the lovers, and take Annabel Lee away from the speaker. Compared to the silence of God in “Porphyria's Lover,” perhaps it is the ostentatiousness of the lovers that threatens the encompassing love of God, forcing Him to act and condemn Annabel Lee to her death. However, since the “demons down under the sea”(31) also failed to “dissever” (32) their souls, their love transcends religion altogether. On the other hand, the speaker in “Porphyria’s Lover” uses references to God to assure himself that his murder was not deplorable because He “has not said a word!” (60). Knoepflmacher finds this similarity with God’s silence and the speaker’s sullen reticence earlier in the poem to imply that the speaker has become God. (Knoepflmacher pg. 16) This would also echo the idolatrous imagery in the line that “Porphyria worshipped” (33) him. In Sonnet 89, the religious imagery is subtle. The “light and wheat” (2) connotation links the lover with Persephone, who because of her duty to bring springtime and vegetation into the world, must leave Hades every half-year. The speaker’s association with death suggests him to be Hades, whose “destiny” was “changed” because of the lover’s “softness” (4). This illumination also justifies why dying is interpreted as being “asleep” (5) because the speaker is confident