Imagery in a poem helps the reader visualize the surroundings and helps the reader infer the main events in a poem. The opening lines in the poem show a dark dismal night. "The rain set early in tonight,/The sullen wind was soon awake,/It tore the elm-tops down for spite,/And did its worst to vex the lake:/I listened with heart fit to break." This helps the reader think of a dark evening and a man sitting impatiently for his lover.

Browning gives Porphyria power by saying, "She shut the cold out and the storm,/And kneeled and made the cheerless grate/Blaze up, and all the cottage warm." The reader can sense that this woman holds some power over her lover. She seems to take care of him. This sets up a reason why the speaker is obsessed with Porphyria.

Porphyria is obviously of a higher rank in society by her use of

The speaker "debated" what to do and realized that she was with him at that moment looking very pretty because she had come from the party and had not left immediately. "That moment she was mine, mine, fair,/Perfectly pure and good." He realizes that to keep her he must kill her. "In one yellow long string I wound three times her little throat around,/And strangled her." The speaker then projects his feelings on her. He says he is sure that she felt no pain when he knows that he was hurt and in turn he hurt her.

the words "pride and vanity." This "rank" gives her obvious power. Porphyria's power is stopped when she tells him why she came. "Murmuring how she loved me--she/Too weak, for all her heart's endeavor/ To set its struggling passion free/From pride, and vainer ties dissever,/And give herself to me forever." This is Porphyria's weak attempt at a break-up. By "murmuring" she loses the pride she talks of. One can infer that she had come to him from a party when the speaker says "tonight's gay feast." By breaking-up with him she could possibly enjoy her evening with another man.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Porphyria Porphyria, Robert Browning, Browning Porphyria, helps reader, Porphyria's Lover, tonight's gay feast, speaker obsessed, tonight's gay, gay feast,
Approximate Word count = 742
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)