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Overview
“Porphyria’s Lover” is a dramatic monologue by the English poet Robert Browning
. The poem first appeared in 1836, and it’s one of the earliest and most shocking of Browning’s dramatic monologues, which tend to feature first-person speakers with abnormal psychologies. In fact, when Browning republished the poem in his 1842 collection Dramatic Lyrics, he paired it with another monologue under the section title “Madhouse Cells.” This section title drew attention to the mental instability that characterizes the speakers of both poems. “Porphyria’s Lover” helped earn Browning widespread fame and adoration in his own lifetime, and it continues to be anthologized widely today.Read the free full text, a summary & analysis, an in-depth character analysis of the speaker, and explanations of important quotes from “Porphyria’s Lover.”
