Summary Porphyrias Lover, which first appeared in 1836, is one of the earliest and most shocking of Brownings dramatic

monologues. The speaker lives in a cottage in the countryside. His lover, a blooming young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of a storm and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage. She embraces the speaker, offering him her bare shoulder. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says, she begins to tell him how she has momentarily overcome societal strictures to be with him. He realizes that she worship[s] him at this instant. Realizing that she will eventually give in to societys pressures, and wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps her hair around her neck and strangles her. He then toys with her corpse, opening the eyes and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this way the entire night, the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him.

The rain set early in tonight, The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm-tops down for spite, And did its worst to vex the lake: I listened with heart fit to break.

First four lines set the scene - pathetic fallacy - weather reflecting the dangerous event that is about to happen. Using words such as "sullen" and "spite" to describe the weather, so that it seems as though the weather is bad on purpose, just to be mean or "spiteful." Hints of the speaker being unstable - heartbroken.

When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; Which done, she rose, and from her form Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl, And laid her soiled gloves by, untied Her hat and let the damp hair fall,

Porphyria isn't introduced or described - she is just there - but her movement is "glided" (ghost?) The description of her lighting the fire almost seems magical. Which is contrasted with the description of her dripping form. The speaker is passive at this point - not responding to her

Let's her "damp hair fall." It's no accident that Browning uses the word "fall": that word has some pretty negative connotations. For one, the word implies sin (Victorian moralists referred to women who had sex outside of marriage as "fallen women"). So maybe Porphyria's free, "fallen" hair symbolizes the irrevocable step she's taken in coming, alone, to see her lover?
The speaker doesn't respond - he is silent. Even his actions are in the passive form. He is very distant from Porphyria. Porphyria takes physical control over the situation. Description of her bare shoulder implies sexual availability Yellow/blond hair is often associated with purity.

And, last, she sat down by my side And called me. When no voice replied, She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare, And all her yellow hair displaced, And, stooping, made my cheek lie there, And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair, Murmuring how she loved me she Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor, To set its struggling passion free From pride, and vainer ties dissever, And give herself to me forever.

But passion sometimes would prevail, Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain A sudden thought of one so pale For love of her, and all in vain: So, she was come through wind and rain. Be sure I looked up at her eyes Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshiped me: surprise Made my heart swell, and still it grew While I debated what to do. That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: [] [] I found

Soft sounds here - why is she murmuring? He then changes to criticise her - "vainer ties" - Some speculate that Porphyria is richer than the speaker, and so those "vainer ties" are her ties to her rich family. Or maybe she's been hesitating about whether or not to sleep with the speaker, and she's too "vain" to go against Victorian social and sexual codes to have sex before marriage. The speaker is unaffected by her declarations of love - harsher words: "struggling", "dissever". Harsh "p" sounds indicates his bitterness at her rejection of the party. She came through the storm to see him, the speaker is reassuring himself of their love for each other

"looked up" - the speaker has been passive until now. The speaker convinces himself of her love for him but is "surprise[d]" It takes him a few minutes to decide "what to do." - very matter of factly.

He repeats the word "mine" twice, in fact, to emphasize his feeling of possession. Everything about her, and about this moment, is "perfect." Matter of fact tone continues and the description of the murder sounds gentle and

A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her. [] [] No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain. As a shut bud that holds a bee, I warily oped her lids: again Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

kind "wraps three times" sounds almost nursery rhyme-like, right up until the contrast of "strangled"

Porphyria's hair is somehow symbolic of her "fall" from sexual purity, does that mean that her "fall," or her sin, somehow kills her? Maybe, but there are lots of other possible interpretations, as well.
Is the speaker reassuring himself or us. Speaker reveals instability - believe her eyes are laughing - This is a weird simile.

The speaker compares Porphyria's closed eyes to a closed flower "bud" with a "bee" inside. Is he afraid of getting stung by her eyes when he opens them again? Or is it a sexual metaphor, since bees, after all, pollinate flowers? Also note that the alliteration (the repeated "b" sounds) connects the "bud" and the "bee."
He also says that her eyes are now "without a stain." Is he referring to a metaphorical "stain" on her honor? Or does the metaphor of the "stain" refer to her unwillingness to be with him exclusively? It's not clear. But somehow, now that she's dead, there's no more stain. Speaker is convincing himself of her beauty still

And I untightened next the tress About her neck; her cheek once more Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss: I propped her head up as before, Only, this time my shoulder bore Her head, which droops upon it still:

The smiling rosy little head, So glad it has its utmost will, That all it scorned at once is fled, And I, its love, am gained instead!

Porphyria's love: she guessed not how Her darling one wish would be heard.

And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirred, And yet God has not said a word!

Now the speaker "prop[s]" Porphyria's head up on his shoulder. This action is a reversal of their positions earlier in the poem, when she moves his head onto her shoulder He's the active one, now, and Porphyria (who's dead, after all) is the passive one. Line 51 ends with a weird and unexpected word: "still." What does he mean, "still"? Is her head "still" on his shoulder? Like, as he was writing this? Porphyria isn't even mentioned by name here: she's just a "smiling rosy little head." She's been reduced to a mere object an "it" Calling her head "little" is also a way of infantilizing her, or treating her like a child. He says that Porphyria is "glad" that her "utmost will," or greatest desire, has been attained: everything she "scorned," or didn't like, is gone ("fled"), and she gets to be with her lover As an object, she can no longer argue with the speaker's interpretations of her desires and emotions. He can project anything he wants onto her, and imagine what he likes. The speaker finally refers to her by name again, but it's to refer to himself he is "Porphyria's love." He says that Porphyria could never have guessed how her wish (to be with him forever) would be fulfilled The speaker switches to the present tense in line 58 "we sit together now." So the whole poem is what the speaker was thinking as he reclined on the couch, snuggled up to his murdered girlfriend. The final line of the poem sounds triumphant: was the speaker expecting divine intervention? Or is he teasing the reader, who was expecting some kind of retribution at the end of the poem? Or is it Browning himself who's teasing the reader at this point?

Structure

Browning establishes that regular iambic tetrameter in the first four lines in order to create the anticipation for a regular meter throughout. When that meter fails, it's always for a reason. Keep an eye out for other spots in the poem where the meter breaks down, and see if you can figure out why Browning does it, That covers the meter, so what about the rhyme? You've probably already noticed the rhyme scheme it's pretty regular, and follows this pattern: ABABB, CDCDD, EFEFF, etc. The rhyme is regular, but it's asymmetrical. Each rhyming unit is backloaded: there are more "B" rhymes than "A," and more "D" than "C," etc. Some critics like to argue that the unbalanced rhyme scheme reflects the speaker's unbalanced mind.