short essay

Response Question One

Poem One: “My Last Duchess

You have two poems to analyze today.  The first is “My Last Duchess,” and the second is “Barbie Doll.” 

 

“My Last Duchess” is a difficult poem for students to understand on the first read, but please make your best efforts.  Remember, that the discussion links are designed to help you develop and expand your ideas about the literature.  If you don’t understand the poem, at least take a guess. 

 

Make sure to pay attention to the punctuation, and you may need to look up specific words if you do not understand them.  Remember that in poetry, every word counts. This poem is a dramatic monologue, which means that one person is speaking to another person who remains silent, and during the discourse or conversation, the speaker reveals something about him or herself that they did not intend to.  To analyze this poem, you need to answer the following:

 

1.  What is the dramatic situation/setting? 

2.  Who is speaking?

3.  Look at the title, what is its significance?

4.  What does the speaker mean by “last” duchess?

5.  What has happened to the last duchess?

6.  What kind of person was the last duchess?

7.  What does the speaker reveal about himself?  In other words, what type of person is he?  I will give you a hint.  Think of Monstressor from “The Cask of Amontillado.”

8.   What is the tone of the poem?  What type of diction does the speaker use?  Make sure to look at your poetry terms.

9.  Does the poem rhyme at the end of each line?  What is the rhyme scheme?  Remember, rhyming words sound alike. For example, pie rhymes with sky.  Each time a new rhyme begins, assign a new letter.   For example:

A little learning is a dangerous thing; (a)

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." (a)

Be not the first by whom the new are tried (b)

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. (b)

 

*Note:  If the poem has a regular rhyme scheme, meaning that there is a definite pattern, the poem is considered formal poetry.  Except for blank verse, most other poems that do not have a regular rhyme scheme and the lines do not have a regular line length, meaning you might have four syllabus in one line and ten in another, are considered free verse. 

 

 

Second Poem: “Barbie Doll”

“Barbie Doll” is a little easier to understand.  Please note the difference in when the poems were written.  You can analyze the poem by answering the following questions:

 

            1. What is the significance of the title?

2.  What is the significance of the girl child being given wee lipstick and

      toy ovens?

 

3.  Does the girl have good self esteem before she reaches puberty?  Does she have confidence after she reaches puberty?  (Please watch the YouTube video that I posted called “Killing me Softly.” 

 

4.  After watching this video, how does it apply to this poem?

5.  Is there anything physically wrong with the young in the poem?  Why did she suddenly become self-conscious about the way she looked?

6.  Why does she cut off her legs and nose and offer them up as a sacrifice?

7.  What is the significance of her appearance in the casket?

8.  The poem states, “To every woman a happy ending?”  Was it a happy ending?  Explain.

ROBERT BROWNING

My Last Duchess

Ferrara3

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call
T

hat piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands4

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

5 Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

10 The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)


And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the rst

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not


Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

15 Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps


Frà Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint


Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half- ush that dies along her throat”: such stuff

20 Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had


A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er


She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

25 Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,


The dropping of the daylight in the West,


The bough of cherries some of cious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

30 Would draw from her alike the approving speech,


Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked


My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name


With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

35 This sort of tri ing? Even had you skill


In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

40 Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,

—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

45 Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet


The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known muni cence

50 Is ample warrant that no just pretense


Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

55 Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,


Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

3. Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara in Italy in the mid-sixteenth century, is the presumed speaker of this dramatic monologue, which is loosely based on historical events. The duke’s rst wife—whom he had married when she was fourteen—died under suspicious circumstances at seventeen, and he then nego- tiated through an agent (this poem’s auditor) for the hand of the niece of the count of Tyrol in Austria. 4. Frà Pandolf is, like Claus (line 56), ctitious.

MARGE PIERCY

Barbie Doll

This girlchild was born as usual


and presented dolls that did pee-pee


and miniature GE stoves and irons


and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.

Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:

You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,

possessed strong arms and back,


abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.

She went to and fro apologizing.

Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,

exhorted to come on hearty,

exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.

Her good nature wore out


like a fan belt.


So she cut off her nose and her legs

and offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay


with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,

a turned-up putty nose,


dressed in a pink and white nightie.

Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.

Consummation at last.


To every woman a happy ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY#action=share