Robert Browning- Porphyria's lover

At the start of the poem the words ' sullen' , 'tore' and 'spite'  (used to describe the outside) give off negative connotations. This is foreshadowing for the ending as the narrator kills his lover, so it makes you expect something bad is going to happen.When the narrators' lover turns up at his cottage the mood changes immediately 'She shut the cold out and the storm'. I think that this is used as a metaphor , so therefore if Porphyria goes outside she will be exposed to the the bad things in life . The narrator does not want her to lose her purity and innocence, stressed by the repetition of 'little' so he keeps his distance and is reluctant to show any affection back to her '....call'd me.When no voice replied, She put my arm around her waist'. After the narrator realises that his Porphyria is in love with him he is surprised and needs to sort out what he can do to end this relationship for her sake. The thought of it surprises him, but his 'heart swell(ed)' and he understood that 'she was mine, mine' and needed to preserve her innocence and who she was at that moment forever so that he would not forget. He believes that to end her life it is the right way to save her from herself and himself too. The narrative tone changes from the moment he strangles her with her own hair, that he once loved. I picture that now she is dead he feels in control of her as the poet cleverly refers back  to the previous phrase when she proppped her head upon his shoulder; this time he puts her head on his shoulder it shows even  more so that he is dominant now. He feels no regret about murdering his lover  ' ...yet God has not said a word!' the final line of the poem is very powerful as at the time period when this poem was written religion was very important and to go against God was a crime in itself let alone committing murder.

The poet uses enjambement throughout the poem to create a sense of a quick pace and short amount of time. This could also be used to represent how short the narrators lover's life was. Iambic tetrameter, where four stresses are used in each line of the poem can also to link with the time and pace of the poem. The genre of this poem is romantic tragedy. This is dramatic monologue.