Poe is known for his dark poems, and short stories, he has three main literary classics. Edgar Allen Poe changed the history of American Literature by writing about dark horrific subjects, he was considered as part of the Romantic Movement. Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 and he died in 1849 due to an unknown cause, before he died he wanted to make a journal called “The Stylus” (americanliteature.com). His work life was successful it included many short stories and poems that were complex to understand, but his childhood and home life was one of the roughest a child could have. Poe had financial problems beyond fixation.
Robert Browning was one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. In 1842, he published ‘Dramatic Lyrics’ which included the two poems ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’. In ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ Browning gives the reader a dramatic insight into the twisted mind of an abnormally possessive lover, who wishes the moment of love to last forever. In this essay, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ will be compared to Robert Browning’s other dramatic monologue, ‘My Last Duchess’, where an Italian aristocrat reveals his cruelty to his late wife whilst showing off a portrait of her to one of his guests. Robert Browning’s poems ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were both written in the form of a dramatic monologue.
The “Cask of Amontillado” is a significant example of how a literary masterpiece can be written as a work of horror. The retelling of this thrilling story is believed to take place sometime in 1794, but is not told by Montresor until a half a century later (Edgar Allan Poe Society). Poe uses Montresor to address the audience to make the reader more involved in this intriguing short story. Poe uses mysterious ways of telling stories throughout his different works, and he has written some of his works based on problems he faced in his own life. Poe loved writing about tragedy and death and “The Cask of Amontillado” is based just on that.
Throughout the poem Marvell’s man uses many different techniques to encourage the woman. Initially he uses extreme praise to win her over, then straight flattery, moving on to almost threatening her, and finally he begins to boast about himself to her. Robert Browing’s poem My Last Duchess is about the relationship between a Duke and his Duchess. In this poem, the Duke is speaking to his envoy, and I think that within the poem he describes how he killed her, what her personality was like and how he is arranging for his envoy to find him another Duchess. Already, there is a clear pattern shown in these poems in the relationships between men and women; the man has little respect for the female.
Readers of the nineteenth century had themselves a ghost story, which satisfied the fashionable fascination with Gothic horror. However when Edmund Wilson posited in his 1934 article that The Turn of the Screw was ambiguous, it caught the interest of countless academics, who started to read it with a newer mindset (O’Gorman 125). Tellingly, when James put his collection of well over a hundred stories in order, he didn’t put The Turn of the Screw with the other ghost stories; he put it between two ‘psychological tales’ (Seymour). James filters the story through several narrative frames to give the effect of ambiguity. Can we trust the recount of the implied James (Allen 74)?
The poem is written in very specific form, a villanelle. Villanelles have nineteen lines divided into five three-line stanzas and a sixth stanza with four lines. In literature, villanelles are often written in the common pattern, iambic pentameter. An example of this: “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,” This use of the technique adds a steady, rhythmical quality to the poem. Poets often create fictional characters who they imagine to be speaking in their own poems; not everything written is the poet’s actual beliefs and thoughts.
Edgar Allan Poe uses imagery, allegory, and symbolism to add dimension to his story. "The Masque of the Red Death" transformed what Poe knew of the bubonic plague and the Philadelphia cholera epidemics into a highly artistic Gothic fantasy symbolizing the irresponsibility of attempting to escape the realities of Life, of Time, and of Death. (Gale Database) One of the devices used is imagery, which evokes the events of the story clearly in the reader’s mind. Another is allegory, which is used by Poe to create another story within his, as it is filled with double meanings. Lastly, Poe utilizes symbolism to give the story meaning.
He continued writing and publishing many more poems, making a name for himself as a prominent Victorian poet. Of his major works, My Last Duchess was a direct illustration of his dramatic writing style for it was loosely based around Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara. This poem is written in the perspective of a Duke who is speaking to the intermediary for his prospective wife and stops to show him a painting. He tells the story of his late Duchess whose flirtatious character displeased him to the point where he decided to get rid of her. Now, the Duchess is merely a painting that is concealed by a curtain that can only be drawn by the Duke himself.
Then a knock came at the door and at the window. Once he opened the window a raven flew into the room and landed above the door step. The only thing that the raven did was say “Nevermore.” While the man tried to talk to the bird, he then found himself at a loss since the bird only had been taught that one word. This brought him deeper into a depression since his wife had recently passed and her name was Lenore. Poe background life doesn’t seem much brighter compared to this poem that he wrote.
He tells the agent that she looks as she was alive and her smiles stopped at his command, which would be seen as a direct admission of murder. He tells the messenger about his displeasure towards his last wife in order to make clear expectations for his future wife. Browning uses many techniques to present the central character, including a simple rhyme scheme, enjambment and caesura to exemplify various characteristics and deceptions of the Duke. He uses an AA BB rhyme scheme, which is commonly seen in ballads and songs. This may be that the poet was trying to create a melodious conversation.