Study Questions
Why is Browning so interested in the Renaissance?
Think about how Browning uses language. What kinds of meter and other poetic
forms does he use? Why is his language so often rough and "un-poetic"?
Why is there so much violence against women in Browning's poetry? What symbolic
purpose might it serve?
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the dramatic monologue form. What kinds
of subject matter does it best address? What kinds does it address less aptly?
What is the relationship between drama and poetry?
Describe the relationship between morality and art in Browning's poetry. What
does Browning have to say about the subject? How do his poems work in this
regard?
Why does Browning so often choose painters as the speakers for his monologues?
Why not choose poets?
How do Browning's dramatic monologues change over the course of his career?
Compare an early poem like "Porphyria's Lover" to a
later one like "Andrea del Sarto" or "Fra Lippo
Lippi" in terms of subject matter, structure, and language.
What is Browning's relationship to the ideals of Romanticism? Consider his use
of nature and also his conception of the poet, of the self, and of memory.
Why are most of Browning's poems set well after the main action they describe?
For example, in "Porphyria's Lover" the speaker
tells of how he murdered Porphyria while he sits beside her corpse, "Andrea
del Sarto" is set in the twilight of Andrea's career,
long after the events he describes (his theft from the King of France and his
escape back to Italy). Why not set the poem at the time of action? Why make the
poem a musing memory?
