10 Years After

In British Literature we finished up discussing "My Last Duchess" and moved on to the first few stanzas of "Porphyria's Lover." The Duke in the first is definately a psycho. Class today was less than half full. Maybe this was an early start to ditching classes next week for Thanksgiving. So, with few students there I ended up answering a lot of questions. One noone would venture an answer I'd either answer. Once the professor called on me when the class was silent. I'm much more comfortable answering questions broadly put to the class rather than ones which are asked directly to me. In anycase, I answered and my answer was acceptable. I also offered an unsolicited comment about the origin of the statue of Neptune taming the horse as being indicative of the Duke displaying his power over the count. The Count is often viewed as Count Tyrol, whose capital was in Innsbruck which is the city of origin for the sculptor who created the bronze statue.

It appears that in reading these Dramatic Dialogues of Robert Browning there is a certain economy of words. Each word and phrase has a specific meaning.

"Porphyria's Lover" is much less enjoyable to read than "My Last Duchess." Perhaps it is that the depravity is much more blatant or that I find the lover, who is the speaker, to be less engrossing. Anyways, the other Dramatic Monologues were also better than "Prophyria's Lover" as well.

Now to study for my quiz in Spanish.