Personal Response #1

Personal Response
Nicole Evans

Emotion is a very powerful tool. It is what makes great poetry great. It is what reaches out to the audience, what pulls them into the text. Good authors are able to connect to the audience on an emotional level, which is what makes their poetry so amazing. There are many ways that emotion can be created in poetry. In Prophyria’s Lover, the author Robert Browning creates emotion using imagery, situational irony and diction.

Imagery is one of the best ways to create emotion. Using words to create an image in the reader’s head better allows the poet to convey certain meanings and  emotions. Imagery is used in many occasions in Prophyria’s Lover. When the author is describing Porphyria after what her lover has done, he says “ I, warily oped her eyes: again/ laughed the blue eyes without a stain./ And I untightened next the tree/ about her neck; her cheek once more/ blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:/” (Lines 44 – 48) This specific excerpt creates a beautiful image in the readers mind of Porphyria lying, dead on her lovers shoulder, still with some life to her – her blue eyes open and cheeks blushing. The imagery here creates a very odd, yet peaceful emotion, because you know Porphyria is dead, yet you still feel overcome by the beautiful description that the author has given.

Another powerful tool used to create emotion is situational irony. In this poem the author uses situational irony as the basis of his entire work. The poem is about a man and his lover, Porphyria. From the author’s description of Porphyria at the beginning of the poem, the reader expects the poem to be a romantic tale of love and beauty. The author even mentions Prophyria’s love for her partner, and the passion between them. The ironic part of this poem is that the situation does not become what you believe it is going to. Instead of turning out a romantic, sweet love story, it goes in quite the opposite direction. Prophyria’s lover decides that he no longer wants her to be living, and able to ‘talk back’. He strangles her with her own hair, saying “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.” (Lines 37 – 41). This is very ironic, because the entire poem is about love, yet Porphyria’s lover ends up killing her, because he wants her silent. In this case, situational irony creates a very strong emotion, due to the extreme nature of the event.

 Diction is the third and final way that Browning creates emotion in the poem Porphyria’s Lover. His use of words throughout the poem is absolutely astounding. The way he describes things creates so many emotions. When he is describing Porphyria after she has been strangled to death, he says “Only, this time my shoulders bore/ Her head, which droops upon it still:/ The smiling rosy little head,/” (Lines 50 – 52) Browning’s use of words here is so incredible, that the reader is able to picture exactly what he says in their mind. By being able to picture what is said, it is easier to emotionally connect to the poem, making the text more intriguing and interesting.

In Porphyria’s Lover, emotion is a very important part of the poem. The author, Robert Browning is very good at reaching out to the audience through words and allowing them to emotionally connect to the poem. In this specific poem, Browning does this through the use of the literary techniques of imagery, situational irony and diction.