Assignment #6

Now... THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

READ: Packet 18-34 and "The River Merchant's Wife" p. 49-50 (and yes, I am asking you to read poems over again for different issues... Berryman for example you read last week... but reading him this week and understanding that "Henry" is usually understood to be a persona that talks about himself sometimes in the third and sometimes in the first person ((often in the same poem)) should help illuminate him for you a bit methinks... and Pound's Cathay deserves multiple multiple readings--"twice twice" is growing on me). If you want extra work or liked this past week's assignments--feel free to do transliterations of the Symborska (either before or after you've read the English translations). Below, read the father of this poetic form--Robert Browning. And Adam--there is a mystery in this poem unsolved since its writing that you might find the answer to. And please, if you discover the man's purpose below--do share. Further reading: Billy S. of course--Hamlet gives a fair monologue, even Romeo, and Lady MacBeth and Portia, also Iago and as for comedies (for my honey) Benedick in Much Ado and his "The world must be peopled..." speech. Milton too but NOT HIS SYNTAX (please spare me diagramming and a darksubject rearing its horn-ed head only after four clauses).

TURN-IN: Group B--poems... EVERYONE--a stapled collection of your glosses thus far.



PORPHYRIA'S LOVER -Browning

THE rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
I listen'd with heart fit to break.
When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm,
And kneel'd and made the cheerless grate
Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;
Which done, she rose, and from her form
Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,
And laid her soil'd gloves by, untied
Her hat and let the damp hair fall,
And, last, she sat down by my side
And call'd me. When no voice replied,
She put my arm about her waist,
And made her smooth white shoulder bare,
And all her yellow hair displaced,
And, stooping, made my cheek lie there,
And spread, o'er all, her yellow hair,
Murmuring how she loved me—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 for ever.
But passion sometimes would prevail,
Nor could to-night's gay feast restrain
A sudden thought of one so pale
For love of her, and all in vain:
So, she was come through wind and rain.
Be sure I look'd up at her eyes
Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipp'd me; surprise
Made my heart swell, and still it grew
While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
In one long yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
I am quite sure she felt no pain.
As a shut bud that holds a bee,
I warily oped her lids: again
Laugh'd the blue eyes without a stain.
And I untighten'd next the tress
About her neck; her cheek once more
Blush'd bright beneath my burning kiss:
I propp'd her head up as before,
Only, this time my shoulder bore
Her head, which droops upon it still:
The smiling rosy little head,
So glad it has its utmost will,
That all it scorn'd at once is fled,
And I, its love, am gain'd instead!
Porphyria's love: she guess'd not how
Her darling one wish would be heard.
And thus we sit together now,
And all night long we have not stirr'd,
And yet God has not said a word!

ASSIGNMENT #6: A poetic dramatic monologue (also known as a persona poem), is similar to its counterpart--the theatrical monologue--in several ways: an audience is implied (even if the poet seems to be talking to herself, she IS talking and this is important because a way of formulating thought which is uttered has qualities that differ from a stream of consciousness which is perhaps less located, less logically ordered, etc); there is no dialogue (only one character please--though she may speak of others); and the poet speaks through an assumed voice--a character, a fictional identity, or a persona (this mask can be as close or as far away from the poet as she chooses, as historical or fictional, as found or created). Because a dramatic monologue is by definition one person’s speech, it is offered without analysis or commentary, so the drama of this type of language comes when there is a gap between how the speaker describes the situation and how the audience perceives that rendering. In other words: how does this particular persona see/experience her world? What is particular or peculiar about that seeing?

Voice here is essential. Maybe the easiest way to think of the distinction between voice and tone/point-of-view is to think of the way you recognize a person speaking over the phone. To recognize the voice is to recognize the whole person; to recognize any or some of the other elements is partial recognition. Voice is the character revealed by the use of language. The poet uses voice to create a fiction. Beyond the dramatic monologue this is true as well: poets like Ginsberg can make an elaborate stage business of presenting the poet-as-character. Some, ex. Elizabeth Bishop, seem equally insistent on having the poet’s character be that of an Everyperson in the circumstances at hand. However controlled or free a writer is with voice in a poem, the paradox remains: voice is the most intimate revelation of the poet herself (even when wearing a mask the poet reveals herself, perhaps even more so BECAUSE of the mask), the most unlikely contraption for lies about who she wishes, fears or believes herself to be. Utterance, even of someone else’s words, is changed utterly by the voice of the utterer. (Now say that five times fast.) Now--forget I said that and have fun with this.

For those of you who crave structure (Adam and Amy or not... or anyone else)--feel free to write in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter--the metric most commonly found whole in prosaic English speech--at least back when people spoke in full sentences). Otherwise--any form will do. Caveat: to guarantee a full portait of your speaker, a minimum of 50 lines.

Best O Luck, my little leprechauns.