Page 346 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 29: Robert Browning: My Last Duchess and the Last Ride Together

5. What is the object of the Duke’s discussion at the beginning of the poem? Notes
(a) The Duchess, who is standing by the wall
(b) A painting of the Duke
(c) Neptune
(d) A painting of the Duchess
6. How old does the Duke say his name is?
(a) 900 (b) 600
(c) 300 (d) 100
7. What is the current object of the Duke’s desire (as he sees it)?
(a) A painting (b) A Neptune sculpture
(c) The duchess (d) The count’s daughter
8. Who was the sculptor of Neptune in the poem?
(a) Carlo crivelli (b) Giotto di Bandone
(c) Claus of Innsbruck (d) Lorenzo Ghiberti
9. What does the Duke say that he will never do?
(a) Love (b) Hate
(c) Fear (d) Stoop
10. What does the Duke say was one of the faults of the Duchess?
(a) She hated him (b) She smiled too much
(c) She was never impressed (d) She was a snob
Only God knows what lies in store for us. Had the poet resigned himself to fate, and fate proposed
bliss, he would not have found himself in a lofty position for the poet writes best when he is sad.
Nevertheless one has to live a life beyond this ‘destined’ life, have his own share of ecstasy. One
should descry these hitherto unexplored avenues of bliss. His feet seem to planted on the goal, and
glory steady around one’s neck in such an instance. Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?:
asks the poet in a rhetorical question. He implies that if earth were good as people said it was, then
how it was that heaven was the superlative. But now the experience itself has transcended the
object and result of the experience as he declares:
“Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride.”

The beloved has not spoken to him, throughout the ride. What if heaven is that life at its fairest and
strongest? With the eyes focused towards the first fruition that always imparts unending joy. Being
fixed in eternity, one need not be flexible. What if they ride on, old with experience, but ever-new in
essence? Altered not in the kind, but in degree: not in quantity but in quality. In such an instance, a
single instant is transformed into eternity. And lastly, what if, they could forever ‘ride’ without
worrying about action, intention or inclination.

29.2.4 Philosophy of Robert Browning

Browning was primarily a thinker, and would not have understood Keat’s prayer for “a world of
sensation rather than of thought.” He “chose poetry” because he felt his thought was valuable, requisite
to be given to the world, and given more arrestingly in verse, for which he know he had a very
unusual gift. A large portion of his poetry consists of his reflections, sometimes bare and bald,
sometimes buried beneath masses of verbal debris, more often clothed in his own individual kind of
rich and varied verse.

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