{"id":167,"date":"2010-02-11T04:26:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T04:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=167"},"modified":"2017-07-11T03:55:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T03:55:06","slug":"my-last-duchess-by-robert-browning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/my-last-duchess-by-robert-browning\/","title":{"rendered":"My Last Duchess by Robert Browning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Robert Browning (1812-1889)<\/p>\n

My Last Duchess<\/p>\n

That’s my last duchess painted on the wall,
\nLooking as if she were alive.? I call
\nThat piece a wonder, now: Fr? Pandolf’s hands
\nWorked busily a day, and there she stands.
\nWill’t please you sit and look at her?? I said
\n“Fr? Pandolf” by design, for never read
\nStrangers like you that pictured countenance,
\nThe depth and passion of its earnest glance,
\nBut to myself they turned (since none puts by
\nThe curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
\nAnd seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
\nHow such a glance came there; so, not the first
\nAre you to turn and ask thus.? Sir, ’twas not
\nHer husband’s presence only, called that spot
\nOf joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps
\nFr? Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps
\nOver my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
\nMust never hope to reproduce the faint
\nHalf-flush that dies along her throat”: such stuff
\nWas courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
\nFor calling up that spot of joy. She had
\nA heart?how shall I say??too soon made glad,
\nToo easily impressed; she liked whate’er
\nShe looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
\nSir, ’twas all one!? My favor at her breast,
\nThe dropping of the daylight in the West,
\nThe bough of cherries some officious fool
\nBroke in the orchard for her, the white mule
\nShe rode with round the terrace?all and each
\nWould draw from her alike the approving speech,
\nOr blush, at least.? She thanked men?good! but thanked
\nSomehow?I know not how?as if she ranked
\nMy gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
\nWith anybody’s gift.? Who’d stoop to blame
\nThis sort of trifling?? Even had you skill
\nIn speech?which I have not?to make your will
\nQuite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
\nOr that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
\nOr there exceed the mark”?and if she let
\nHerself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
\nHer wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
\n?E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
\nNever to stoop.? Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
\nWhene’er I passed her; but who passed without
\nMuch the same smile?? This grew; I gave commands;
\nThen all smiles stopped together.? There she stands
\nAs if alive.? Will’t please you rise?? We’ll meet
\nThe company below, then.? I repeat,
\nThe Count your master’s known munificence
\nIs ample warrant that no just pretense
\nOf mine for dowry will be disallowed;
\nThough his fair daughter’s self as I avowed
\nAt starting, is my object.? Nay, we’ll go
\nTogether down, sir.? Notice Neptune, though,
\nTaming a sea horse, thought a rarity,
\nWhich Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Browning (1812-1889)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1800s","category-death-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t