Page 350 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

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

29.4 Keywords Notes

Transcendentalism : Transcendentalism is a group of ideas in literature and philosophy that
developed in the 1830s and 1840s as a protest against the general state of
culture and society.
Interconnectedness : Interconnectedness refers to state of being mutually joined or related.
Morality : Morality is the sense which differentiates among the intentions, decisions
and actions, between those that are good and bad.
Imagery : Imagery, in a literary text, is the use of details and descriptors, such as
adjectives and nouns, used to create a mental or sensational image in the
mind of a reader.
Verse : A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry.
However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words
in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza.

29.5 Review Questions

1. How does Robert Browning reveal character in “My Last Duchess”?
2. What are some symbols in “My Last Duchess”?
3. Show how Browning’s philosophy of life and philosophy of love are fused together in the
last ride together.
4. Browning’s the last ride together rigisters his characteristic optimism. Do you agree?

Answers: Self Assessment
1. (c) 2. (b) 3. (d)
4. (b) 5. (b) 6. (a)
7. (d) 8. (c) 9. (d)
10. (b)

29.6 Further Readings

John Keats: a literary biography — Albert Helmer Hancock
William Wordsworth — William Wordsworth
Complete poetical works — William Wordsworth
Robert Browning — G.K.Chesterton

Online links http://www.shmoop.com/my-last-duchess/summary.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/poetry-analysis-robert-brownings-last-ride-together-
6890172.html

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