This post is the script of my YouTube video. The channel is created to channel my love for literature in video form. For the first episode, we’re discussing one of my most favourite poems; Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning. In terms of complexity, it’s a rather simple poem; but it is considered to be one of the most shocking poems ever written; especially given the time and age it was published in. Porphyria’s Lover, written by Robert Browning, was published in 1836 and managed to garner some genuinely shocked responses from readers.
Let’s go through the poem by its paragraphs.
The rain set early in to-night,
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.
The poem is written as a monologue. The speaker apparently sits in a small cottage on the countryside. It’s a stormy night outside: he narrates that the rain started early on and the angry wind came with it. The elm tree tops were almost torn down as if the storm was angry at them, and the lake was provoked to act uncharacteristically as well. The poor man listened to the chaos outside with a vulnerable heart, almost broken. The monologue introduces the speaker and sets the grave mood of the poem.
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;
Amidst the storm, the light of his life walks into his humble cottage. Porphyria, his lover, braves the storm and glides into his home. As she enters, the speaker feels like the cold and the storm were shut out of his cottage. She kneels down and lit up the fireplace, making the cottage warm. These lines describe how Porphyria was the ray of light in his rather sad and gloomy life. She even came seeking him in the midst of a stormy night.
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,
And, last, she sat down by my side
Having lit the fireplace, Porphyria rose and removed her wet clothings – her cloak, shawl, gloves, and her hat. This part is important given the time the poem was published in. The Victorian readers wouldn’t appreciate the sexual liberty that Porphyria has displayed here. She walked into her lover’s cottage at night and felt free to take off items of clothing; something that she would be ridiculed for. It added to the appeal of the poem back in the day. Porphyria let her long, damp hair fall, and sat down by the speaker’s 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,
She called out to him as she sat beside him, but he didn’t respond. She drew his arm around her waist, displaced her yellow hair and exposed her shoulders, where she made the speaker lay his cheeks. As he laid his face on her shoulders, he says, her yellow hair spread all over. Subtly, he describes that she was a delicately beautiful girl, and how much he was enticed by her.
Murmuring how she loved me — she
Too weak, for all her heart’s endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me for ever.
As his head lay on her shoulder, Porphyria murmured that she loved him very much. In these lines it is disclosed that Porphyria was in fact a member from the higher sections of the society, who fell in love with a poor man. The speaker goes on to say that she often gets weak. She loves him dearly, but the passion in her heart struggles to be free. She is held back by pride and the vanities of her social life from giving herself to him completely.
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could to-night’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.
Her passion sometimes found a way to him, like it had done tonight. Even the obstacles of a stormy night could not restrain her. She had gotten pale with the thought of her unattainable love, and yet she had come to him through the rain.
Be sure I looked up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
When the speaker looked into Porphyria’s eyes, he could see that she was happy and proud about being there with him. It made him feel like she worshipped him. It made his heart swell of happiness. However, the next line is a surprising one – he debates within himself about ‘what he must do next’. It makes us wonder, what would he need to think so hard about? His lover was with him, he could just as well enjoy the moment and the fact that she made her way to him through such hardship. Instead, he begins pondering over his next course of action.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: 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. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.
At that moment, Porphyria was completely his. She was pure. She was generous to him. Perhaps the speaker feared that her purity, or the purity of her love would soon be corrupted by the social class she belonged to. At that moment she belonged to him, but one day she might not. So he wrapped her long hair around his wrist, wound it around her throat three times, and strangled her. As she died on his shoulder and dropped lifeless, the speaker claims that she felt no pain at all.
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily oped her lids: again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untightened next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss:
Like a closed flower bud that holds a bee within, the speaker opened Porphyria’s eyelids to reveal her blue eyes within. He says that the eyes laughed without a stain. As he undid the hair around her neck, her cheeks were filled with life again, and they blushed bright as he placed a kiss on her face.
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!
The speaker pulled her head back on his shoulder. Porphyria drooped lifeless on his shoulder. He feels no remorse for having killed her. In fact, he claims that he gave her her heart’s wish. Her smiling, rosy little head is glad that she has been granted what she wanted most. Everyone who would scorn at their relationship is gone now. Only her and her lover were present. She has gained him completely through this act of his.
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!
Porphyria could never have guessed how her lover would fulfil all her wishes. Having granted her the love of her life, the speaker sat silently throughout the night with her head on his shoulder. And at the end, he says that God has not punished him for the deed he has done; indicating that on some level, he is aware that he has done wrong. Regardless, throughout the poem he displays a mentally unhinged, psychopathic demeanour by claiming that strangling his lover was an act of generosity towards her, and that she was happy that he did it to her.
Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning came as a shock to the Victorian readers for multiple reasons. The girl from high class disregards her boundaries and visits her poor lover amidst a thunderstorm, and pretty much undresses herself in front of him, which could have earned her a terrible reputation in society. In some way, the theme of violence that later shows up could have been perceived as something that Porphyria deserved for her outrageous behaviour. Yet, the shock element is too overpowering to justify as the speaker displays psychopathic qualities that were completely unnatural at the time and Robert Browning outdid his own reputation with this poem.
Speaking of themes in the poem, they include social class, love, violence, mental health and to some extent, faith. Using an intense monologue of a seemingly love-struck speaker, Browning has managed to include a number of elements that reflect the Victorian society and can shock the same.
The calibration of the speaker’s flow of consciousness is the most interesting element in this poem. He transforms into multiple personalities as the poem progresses. At the outset, he seems to be a poor, pitiable man. He then transforms into an admiring lover, very much in awe of his high class lover. He almost seems grateful and worshipping of her. From pitiable, he turns endearing. He moves on to describe how beautiful she is and transforms into a romantic lover. And then out of the blue, he transforms into an impulsive murderer who acts with no second thoughts. And then, having killed his lover, he transforms into a terrifying psychopath who murders his lover and justifies it by convincing himself that he has given her what she wants and made her pure. At this point, we’re not sure how aware he is of his own actions. But lastly, he transforms into a cunning man who knows exactly what he has done and almost taunts the religious readers by stating ‘God has not said a word’. The speaker donnes so many hats within a matter of few poetic lines, he leaves the readers in a state of shock. Porphyria’s Lover is an impressive work of art for many reasons. It is to be noted that it came at a time when poetry was mostly whimsical and mystical interrogation with a lot of verbal embellishment. It must have hence been easy for this one to make its mark. From an academic point of view, its a rather easy poem but from a social standpoint, it opens the Victorian hypocritic can of worms. We’ll get there in some forthcoming videos.
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