Porphyrias Lover

Speaker Point of View

Who is the speaker, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
The speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" sounds awfully straightforward. His tone is incredibly reasonable,
which makes it even creepier considering he's describing horrific things (such as strangling his
girlfriend and cuddling with the corpse). He even makes it sound as though he was doing her a favour
he calls it "her darling one wish" (line 57). It's hard to tell from the speaker's language that he's off
his rocker, since he speaks very smoothly and matter-of-factly. The rhyme scheme remains steady,
and the meter is pretty regular (except for a few places check out "Form and Meter" for some telling
exceptions). What kind of psychopathic murderer would be able to describe his crimes so calmly?
Thus, the calm, smooth tone of the speaker adds to the effect of the poem. The speaker is kind of like
the killer in the movie Seven: he doesn't think he's done anything wrong, and that's part of what
makes him so terrifying.
Porphyria's Lover Setting
The poem takes place in a house near a lake, probably out in the country somewhere. There are trees
around, and it's probably a pretty nice place to visit when the weather's good. Too bad the weather's
so crummy on the night the poem takes place. It's raining and so windy that the speaker imagines that
the wind is consciously trying to break down trees out of "spite" (line 3).
The speaker doesn't tell us much about what the inside of the house looks like. There's no fire in the
"grate" until Porphyria arrives, so the house is probably pretty cold. If there's no fire, there must not be
any servants (most middle class Victorians kept at least one servant), so the speaker might be
relatively poor. After all, the house is described as a "cottage" (line 9). Porphyria sure does a lot to
cheer up the inside of the house, though! The fire makes everything all cosy. It doesn't seem all that
bad a nice cosy cottage with a bright fire on a rainy night. Seems like the perfect time and place to
curl up with your significant other and cuddle by the fire, right? Sure, until the speaker decides that it's
also the perfect time and place to strangle Porphyria to death with her own hair.
The Storm
The speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" opens by describing the storm outside. Oddly, he describes the
storm with adjectives that suggest that the weather is conscious of what it's doing. A Victorian critic
named John Ruskin scathingly ridiculed this literary move, in which the outside world is described in a
way that reflects the inner mood of a character. He called it the "pathetic fallacy." After all, Ruskin
pointed out, the weather isn't conscious of whether we're in a good mood or not. It's not like it starts
raining just because we're heartbroken, or turns sunny and warm the moment we fall in love. Writing
poems or novels in which the weather reflects the inner state of the characters, Ruskin argued, is just
bad craftsmanship.
Line 2: The words "sullen" and "awake" personify the weather. It's not like the wind can literally feel
"sullen," nor was it asleep before it started to pick up.
Line 3: More of what Ruskin calls the "pathetic fallacy": the wind doesn't actually feel "spite" when it
tears up the trees. Browning just decided to personify it again.
Line 4: And now the lake is being personified. You can't really "vex," or irritate, a body of water, no
matter how hard you splash it.
Line 7: Porphyria has some kind of power over the storm she is able to "shut [it] out" almost
instantaneously. The speaker doesn't describe her actions only their effects.

Eyes
There's not a lot of talking in this poem. Porphyria doesn't get any direct dialogue, and the entire
poem is the speaker's (possibly internal) monologue. Eyes do most of the talking in "Porphyria's
Lover." Let's see what they say
Lines 31-32: The speaker does something active for the first time in the poem! Instead of just lying
there like Gumby, allowing Porphyria to rearrange his limbs as she sees fit, he "look[s] up at her
eyes." It's not clear whether "happy and proud" describe her "eyes," or the speaker. It's ambiguous.
But it's clear that the speaker sees something in her eyes that convinces him that she really, really
loves him.
Lines 43-44: This is a weird simile. The speaker compares Porphyria's closed eyes to a closed flower
"bud" with a "bee" inside. Is he afraid of getting stung by her eyes when he opens them again? Or is it
a sexual metaphor, since bees, after all, pollinate flowers? Also note that the alliteration (the repeated
"b" sounds) connects the "bud" and the "bee."
Line 45: There's a lot going on in this line. The speaker is usingsynecdoche by making Porphyria's
"blue eyes" represent the whole woman ("synecdoche" is when you have a part of something stand in
for the whole thing). After all, "eyes" don't "laugh" by themselves. But there's also an odd metaphor at
the end of the line. What kind of "stain" could the eyes have? Does he mean that they're clear, and not
bloodshot (as you might expect the eyes of a strangled woman to be)? Or does he mean that, by
dying, the "stain" of Porphyria's sin is gone? Or is he saying that there's no "stain" of his sin (of killing
her) visible in her eyes?
Cuddling by the Fire
Porphyria and her lover spend most of the poem cuddling by the fire. Of course, she's dead for half of
it, and their positions get reversed, but still: there's not a lot of movement in this poem. Let's take a
look at how they're positioned
Line 16: Porphyria is the active one here: she physically takes the speaker's arm and pulls it around
her "waist." He just sits there like a lump and lets her rearrange him.
Line 19: Again, Porphyria is active, and the speaker is passive. She's the one to pull his head down
against her shoulder.
Line 31: Here, exactly halfway through the 60-line poem, the speaker finally does something active.
He turns and "looks up" at Porphyria's face.
Lines 49-50: Now the speaker is the active one their positions are reversed. Porphyria's head now
leans against his shoulder, and he's the one rearranging her limbs.
Porphyria's Lover Theme of Love
Sure, the speaker ends up killing Porphyria, but the poem includes "lover" in the title, so you have to
figure that "love" is going to play some kind of role. You're right, though what passes for "love" in the
world of this poem isn't going to win you any prom dates. After reading this poem, you'll likely feel that
the speaker has earned a one-way trip to a federal prison. Or to a mental hospital.
Porphyria's Lover Theme of Sin
There's some pretty obvious sinning going on in "Porphyria's Lover" after all, the speaker describes
how he strangled his lover. But there's some less obvious sin here, too. Victorian moralists were all
about repressing female sexuality and pretending that it didn't exist. For a woman to acknowledge that

she even had sexual desires was considered sinful, and actually acting on those desires was
borderline
Porphyria's Lover Theme of Power
The "love" between the speaker and Porphyria turns pretty quickly into a power play. Porphyria seems
to be the one who's in control at the beginning of the poem, then the speaker completely reverses
things. He seems to want to possess Porphyria, so he reduces her to an object (a corpse, instead of
an independently-thinking individual).
Porphyria's Lover Theme of Passivity
Porphyria and the speaker keep switching places. At the beginning, the speaker is passive, and
allows Porphyria to move his arms around as she sees fit. She does everything, while he just sits on
the couch like a lump. But then, abruptly, they swap: the speaker strangles her, and makes Porphyria
even more passive than he was.
Porphyria's Lover Theme of Society and Class
This is one of the more understated themes of this poem. Porphyria seems to be of a higher social
class than the speaker. Her reluctance to be with him might have to do with her reluctance to give up
social standing. Death, however, acts as a social leveller killing her makes her social class
irrelevant.
The difference in social class between Porphyria and her lover creates a disparity in their power
dynamic during the first half of the poem. The speaker murders her in an attempt to bring balance to
their relationship.
The difference in social class between Porphyria and her lover makes absolutely no difference: their
power dynamic is uneven because of her intense agency and his extreme passivity, not because of
her social rank.

Porphyria's Lover Love Quotes

Quote #1
Murmuring how she loved me (21)
This could be really sweet. After all, Porphyria is "murmuring" softly in the speaker's ear. How
romantic! Or it could be that she's still hesitant, and can't bring herself to say it more directly.
Quote #2
To set its struggling passion free
From pride [] (23-24)
The speaker says that Porphyria's "passion" is "struggling" in her heart. She's too "weak" to set it free.
Love is getting figured in terms of freedom and restraint again Porphyria is constrained by
something (the "vainer ties" that never get explained) and can't love freely.
Quote #3
A sudden thought of one so pale
For love of her, and all in vain (28-29)
The speaker imagines that Porphyria came to his house that night because she couldn't bear the
thought of him suffering alone in his love for her.
Quote #4
[] at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me [] (32-33)
When love isn't being figured in terms of freedom and restraint, it's described as "worship." Why can't
love be equal in this poem? Porphyria worships the speaker (or so he assumes), so he strangles her
so that he can idolize her beauty in the same way.
Quote #5
And I, its love, am gained instead! (55)
Porphyria has been strangled and reduced to a corpse a mere object, rather than a thinking
individual. The speaker even uses the pronoun "its" to describe her, instead of "her."
Quote #6
Porphyria's love: she guessed not how
Her darling one wish would be heard. (56-57)
The title of the poem is almost but not quite uttered in line 56. It's just missing the final "r."

Porphyria's Lover Sin Quotes

Quote #1
And laid her soiled gloves by [] (12)
Why are her gloves "soiled," or dirty? Sure, it's raining outside, but this is an interesting, and perhaps
telling, detail to include. Perhaps the "soiled gloves" are somehow symbolic of Porphyria's "soiled"
virtue or reputation.
Quote #2
[] untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall, (12-13)
We pointed out the importance of the word "fall" in "Symbolism, Imagery, Wordplay" it could suggest
the Victorian idea of the "fallen woman," who has "fallen" from virtue by having sex outside of
marriage.
Quote #3
And made her smooth white shoulder bare (17)
The "smooth white[ness]" of Porphyria's shoulder contrasts with the sin she's committing by visiting
her lover.
Quote #4
[] she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, [] (20-24)
The speaker doesn't consider Porphyria's presence there to be a sin. For him, the real sin is her
"weak[ness]" and "pride" her unwillingness to throw off society's expectations and be with him
forever.
Quote #5
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: [] (36-37)
The moment that Porphyria "worship[s]" the speaker, he decides that she's no longer committing the
sin of "pride" and she becomes "perfectly pure and good."
Quote #6
[] I found
A thing to do[] (37-38)
The murder of Porphyria, in the speaker's mind, isn't a sin at all it's just "a thing to do." He's awfully
casual about killing his lover.

Porphyria's Lover Power Quotes

Quote #1
It tore the elm-tops down for spite (3)
The power of the storm is personified in the opening lines of the poem. It's important to remember,
though, that the poem is written from the point of view of a very unstable mind.
Quote #2
When glided in Porphyria: straight
She shut the cold out and the storm. (6-7)
Despite the awesome power of the storm, Porphyria seems to be able to "shut [it] out" almost without
effort.
Quote #3
[] she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, [] (20-24)
Love, as we've seen, is figured in terms of freedom and constraint. Porphyria's "weak[ness]" here
suggests that she's neither as powerful nor as free as she seemed at the beginning of the poem.
Quote #4
Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain (27)
Again, the metaphor of freedom and restraint! The power of Porphyria's love for the speaker made her
skip a party. She simply couldn't "restrain" the urge to visit him.
Quote #5
And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!
This reference to God is the only suggestion of an outside system of ethics in the poem. It almost
seems to be a taunt, as though the speaker laughs at the idea of any kind of retribution.

Porphyria's Lover Passivity

Quote #1
I listened with heart fit to break. (5)
The speaker's passivity at the beginning of the poem is pretty extreme. His only response to the storm
is to "listen," even though listening makes his heart break.
Quote #2
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; (8-9)
Porphyria, on the other hand, has more agency and activity than the speaker can handle she's able
to make the fireplace "blaze up," apparently without even lighting a match! She's the opposite of
passive.
Quote #3
And last, she sat down by my side
And called me. When no voice replied, (14-15)
The speaker can't even be bothered to answer Porphyria when she calls to him. And he doesn't even
say, "I didn't answer" he just notes, "no voice replied."
Quote #4
She put my arm about her waist, (16)
The speaker is so passive and apathetic that he just lets Porphyria move his arms around like a doll.
Quote #5
I propped her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still (49-51)
By the second half of the poem, the tables have turned: now Porphyria is the passive one (because
she's dead), and the speaker moves her body around as though she were a doll.
Quote #6
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will (52-53)
The speaker refers to Porphyria just as a "head" an object, something that can't have a "will" of its
own at all.

Porphyria's Lover Society and Class Quotes

Quote #1
And kneeled and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; (8-9)
The fact that the speaker lives in a "cottage" that didn't even have a fire on a cold and stormy night
suggests that he belongs to a lower class.
Quote #2
[] she
Too weak, for all her heart's endeavour,
To set its struggling passion free
From pride, and vainer ties dissever,
And give herself to me forever[] (20-25)
Porphyria, we're told, has been struggling with "pride" as she decides whether or not to be with the
speaker. What are those "vainer ties" that she's thinking about breaking? Is she already married? Or
does she belong to a higher social class than the speaker?
Quote #3
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could tonight's gay feast restrain (26-27)
Here's another clue that Porphyria belongs to a higher social class than the speaker: she skipped out
on a "gay feast" to be with him. If she lived in a cold cottage like his, she wouldn't have many
invitations to "gay feasts."