Porphyria's Lover

Question 1

Themes:

Answer 1

• Secret Love
• Pain, Death
• Desire, longing, Obsession

Question 2

Compare With:

Answer 2

• The Farmer’s Bride
• When We Two Parted
• Sonnet 29 ‘ I Think Of Thee’
• Neutral Tones

Question 3

Secret Love:

Answer 3

• “She put my arm around her waist and made her white shoulder bare”

Question 4

Pain, Death:

Answer 4

• “And it did it’s worst to vex the lake, i listened with heart fit to break”
• “The rain set early in to- night, the sullen wind was soon awake”

Question 5

Desire, Longing, Obsession:

Answer 5

• “Too weak, for all hearts endeavour”
• “Porphyria worshipped me; surprise”
• “No pain felt she”
• “That moment she was mine, mine, fair”
• “Made my heart swell”
• “And yet god has not said a word”

Question 6

Unrequited Love:

Answer 6

• “Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me”
• “Passion sometimes, would prevail”
• “And I, it’s love, is gained itself”

Question 7

Compare With: The Farmer’s Bride

Answer 7

• The men both want the women to love them more

- The man in The Farmer’s Bride is more dominant while the man in Porphyria’s Lover is more weak

Question 8

Compare With: When We Two Parted

Answer 8

• The women are the powerful, higher status people
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Affairs
• In When We Two Parted, it is the death of a relationship
• In Porphyria’s Lover, it is the death of a person

Question 9

Compare With: Sonnet 29 ‘I Think Of Thee’

Answer 9

• The man in Porphyria’s Lover is the one who admires her
• The woman in Sonnet 29 is the one who admires him
• The relationships ‘Can’t be’

Question 10

Compare With: Neutral Tones

Answer 10

• The relationships ‘ Can’t be’
• Men’s POV on women are different
• Break up is natural in Neutral Tones
• Break up is not natural in Porphyria’s Lover

Question 11

Structure:

Answer 11

• First half of the poem, Porphyria is active and very dominant
• The poem mirrors, Eg: Porphyria places her lover on her shoulder and when she dies, he places her on his shoulder

Question 12

Form:

Answer 12

• Dramatic Monologue
• Enjambment
• The narrator is very calm and does not put any concern that he just killed Porphyria

Question 13

Tone:

Answer 13

• Dark and Sinister

- Shows how mentally ill the narrator is because he just killed her and does not care