my last duchess grade 9 essay

My Last Duchess Summary & Analysis by Robert Browning

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

“My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue written by Victorian poet Robert Browning in 1842. In the poem, the Duke of Ferrara uses a painting of his former wife as a conversation piece. The Duke speaks about his former wife's perceived inadequacies to a representative of the family of his bride-to-be, revealing his obsession with controlling others in the process. Browning uses this compelling psychological portrait of a despicable character to critique the objectification of women and abuses of power.

• Read the full text of “My Last Duchess”

The Full Text of “My Last Duchess”

      FERRARA

1 That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, 

2 Looking as if she were alive. I call 

3 That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands 

4 Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 

5 Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said 

6 “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read 

7 Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 

8 The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 

9 But to myself they turned (since none puts by 

10 The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 

11 And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, 

12 How such a glance came there; so, not the first 

13 Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not 

14 Her husband’s presence only, called that spot 

15 Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps 

16 Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps 

17 Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint 

18 Must never hope to reproduce the faint 

19 Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff 

20 Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 

21 For calling up that spot of joy. She had 

22 A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad, 

23 Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er 

24 She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 

25 Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast, 

26 The dropping of the daylight in the West, 

27 The bough of cherries some officious fool 

28 Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 

29 She rode with round the terrace—all and each 

30 Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 

31 Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked 

32 Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked 

33 My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 

34 With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame 

35 This sort of trifling? Even had you skill 

36 In speech—which I have not—to make your will 

37 Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this 

38 Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss, 

39 Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let 

40 Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 

41 Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse— 

42 E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose 

43 Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, 

44 Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without 

45 Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; 

46 Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands 

47 As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet 

48 The company below, then. I repeat, 

49 The Count your master’s known munificence 

50 Is ample warrant that no just pretense 

51 Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; 

52 Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed 

53 At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go 

54 Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 

55 Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 

56 Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

“My Last Duchess” Summary

“my last duchess” themes.

The Objectification of Women

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Social Status, Art, and Elitism

Control and Manipulation

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “my last duchess”.

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,  Looking as if she were alive. I call  That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands  Worked busily a day, and there she stands.  Will’t please you sit and look at her?

I said  “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read  Strangers like you that pictured countenance,  The depth and passion of its earnest glance,  But to myself they turned (since none puts by  The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)  And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,  How such a glance came there; so, not the first  Are you to turn and ask thus.

Lines 13-19

Sir, ’twas not  Her husband’s presence only, called that spot  Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps  Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps  Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint  Must never hope to reproduce the faint  Half-flush that dies along her throat.”

Lines 19-24

Such stuff  Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough  For calling up that spot of joy. She had  A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,  Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er  She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Lines 25-31

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,  The dropping of the daylight in the West,  The bough of cherries some officious fool  Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule  She rode with round the terrace—all and each  Would draw from her alike the approving speech,  Or blush, at least.

Lines 31-34

She thanked men—good! but thanked  Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked  My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name  With anybody’s gift.

Lines 34-43

Who’d stoop to blame  This sort of trifling? Even had you skill  In speech—which I have not—to make your will  Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this  Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,  Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let  Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set  Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—  E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose  Never to stoop.

Lines 43-47

Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,  Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without  Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;  Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands  As if alive.

Lines 47-53

Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet  The company below, then. I repeat,  The Count your master’s known munificence  Is ample warrant that no just pretense  Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;  Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed  At starting, is my object.

Lines 53-56

Nay, we’ll go  Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,  Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,  Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

“My Last Duchess” Symbols

The Painting

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

The Statue of Neptune

“my last duchess” poetic devices & figurative language.

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Personification

“my last duchess” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Fra Pandolf
• Countenance
• Munificence
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “My Last Duchess”

Rhyme scheme, “my last duchess” speaker, “my last duchess” setting, literary and historical context of “my last duchess”, more “my last duchess” resources, external resources.

Robert Browning's Answers to Some Questions, 1914 — In March of 1914, Cornhill Magazine interviewed Robert Browning about some of his poems, including "My Last Duchess." He briefly explains his thoughts on the duchess.

Chris de Burgh, "The Painter" (1976) — Chris de Burgh (a Northern Irish singer-songwriter, best known for "Lady in Red") wrote a song from the perspective of the Duke of Ferrara about his former wife, in which the duchess was having an affair with Fra Pandolf.

My Last Duchess Glass Window — The Armstrong Browning Library and Museum at Baylor University has a stained glass window inspired by "My Last Duchess."

Julian Glover performs "My Last Duchess" — Actor Julian Glover performs "My Last Duchess" with a suitably dramatic tone of voice. Note how he emphasizes the conversational quality of the poem.

Nikolaus Mardruz to his Master Ferdinand, Count of Tyrol, 1565 by Richard Howard, 1929 — This poem by American poet Richard Howard provides the Ferrara's guest's perspective on the meeting between himself and the duke.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Browning

A Light Woman

Among the Rocks

A Toccata of Galuppi's

A Woman's Last Word

Confessions

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad

How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix

Life in a Love

Love Among the Ruins

Love in a Life

Meeting at Night

Pictor Ignotus

Porphyria's Lover

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church

The Laboratory

The Last Ride Together

The Lost Leader

The Lost Mistress

The Patriot

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Women and Roses

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

Ozymandias/My Last Duchess Essay

Both Ozymandias and My Last Duchess explore rulers looking down on people. In Ozymandias, Shelley tells the story of a traveller who comes across a statue of an ancient ruler. Shelley makes clear the ancient ruler looked down on his people by writing ‘sneer of cold command’. This imagery helps the reader to imagine the facial expression of the statue, which gives the reader an indication of the kind of ruler Ozymandias was. Shelley’s use of the word ‘sneer’ implies that Ozymandias looked down on his people. Shelley’s use of the words ‘cold command’ suggest that he was a heartless, unkind ruler who did not show any warmth towards his people. This is similar in My Last Duchess. In My Last Duchess, Browning tells the story of a Duke, who becomes obsessively jealous of his wife, so has her killed. Browning makes clear that the Duke looks down on his wife by writing ‘I choose never to stoop’. In other words, Browning is suggesting that the Duke sees his wife as less intelligent and less important than him and doesn’t want to stoop down to her level. Rather than discussing his jealousy with her, he chooses not to stoop and doesn’t give her the opportunity to speak with him about his feelings. This reflects a view among many Victorian men at the time, who viewed their wives as their property rather than their equal. Browning’s repetition of the word ‘stoop’ in the Duke’s words emphasises how arrogant and stubborn he is. It is clear in both poems that the ruler believes they are far better than other people.

Both poems explore arrogance. In Ozymandias, Shelley makes clear the ruler was arrogant by writing that he had the words ‘king of kings’ written on the base of his statue. Not only did Ozymandias have a statue erected for himself, but he also chose to describe himself as the best king on the base of the statue, which indicates how arrogant he was. Shelley uses the arrogance of Ozymandias to criticise other leaders, such as King George, who was king of England at the time Shelley was writing. This is similar in My Last Duchess. In My Last Duchess, Browning presents the Duke as arrogant by having him refer to his ‘nine-hundred’ year old name as a ‘gift’. Browning’s use of the word ‘gift’ demonstrates that the Duke believes his wife should see their marriage as a present that has been given to her. The words ‘nine-hundred’ imply that he thinks she should be particularly grateful because his family have years of wealth and status attached to their name. Through presenting the Duke in this way, Browning highlights the inequality between men and women in the Victorian era. It is clear that the woman was expected to be grateful if she married a wealthy man. Both poets use their poems to criticise issues in society at the time they were writing.

Both poems explore power, but Ozymandias has lost his power. Shelley makes clear Ozymandias no longer has power by describing his statue as a ‘colossal wreck’. This imagery helps the reader to imagine that the statue has been destroyed and lies in pieces on the sand. Shelley’s use of the word ‘colossal’ represents how huge Ozymandias’s power was when he was still alive. Shelley’s use of the word ‘wreck’ not only helps the reader to imagine the destroyed statue but also refers to how little power Ozymandias still has. Shelley gives the reader a very clear message about the power of nature versus the power of humankind.Through the fact that the statue has been destroyed by nature, Shelley clearly indicates that nature is far more powerful. In contrast, the Duke is still in power in My Last Duchess. Browning conveys that the Duke maintained his power by writing ‘I gave commands, then all smiles stopped’. In other words, the Duke is proudly claiming that he had his wife murdered in order to prevent her from speaking to other men. Browning’s use of the words ‘gave commands’ indicate that the Duke was not willing to kill his wife himself; he used the power he had to have someone else kill her. Browning seems to be criticising the power that wealthy men had Victorian society through the Duke’s tyrannical actions.

Shelley’s sonnet and Browning’s dramatic monologue explore ideas about power and inequalities that reflect the times in which they were writing. In Ozymandias, Shelley presents a once powerful ruler whose control and reign does not last, while Browning’s Duke shows no sign of losing any of his power. In ‘My Last Duchess’, Browning criticises the superiority, power and arrogance that many upper class Victorian men demonstrated over their wives, while Shelley’s poem seems to suggest that while rulers- such as George IV- may seem all powerful, their rules will not last.

Both Ozymandias and My Last Duchess explore rulers who feel superior to those around them. In Ozymandias, Shelley tells the story of a traveller who comes across a statue of an ancient ruler, emphasising that the ancient ruler looked down on his people by writing ‘sneer of cold command’. This imagery helps the reader to imagine the facial expression of the statue, which gives the reader an indication of the kind of ruler Ozymandias was. The alliterative ‘cold command’ implies that Ozymandias was a heartless and unfeeling ruler who did not show any warmth towards his people. By telling the reader that the statue’s facial expression is a ‘sneer’, Shelley suggests that not only that the ruler does not care about his subjects, but he feels superior to them. Similarly, in My Last Duchess, Browning’s Duke shows a visitor the portrait of his deceased wife, implying that he had her killed because she did not behave as he wanted. The poem, a dramatic monologue from the Duke’s perspective, continually shows the Duke’s feelings of superiority to those around him and to his wife. When the Duke declares, ‘I choose never to stoop’, Browning implies that the Duke feels that he is more intelligent and important than his wife, and that he has the power and luxury to ‘choose’ not to ‘stoop’ and lower himself to her level, rather than discuss his feelings of jealousy with his wife. Browning repeats the verb ‘stoop’ in order to emphasise the Duke’s stubborn nature and feeling of superiority over his wife. In this way, Browning may be criticising patriarchal Victorian society, where rich men often viewed wives as part of their property rather than as equals. It is clear that in both poems, the writers present rulers who believe they are far better than those around them. But while Shelley’s ruler becomes a ‘wreck’ in the sand, Browning does not offer a glimpse of a world without the Duke in power and suggests that he will continue to behave this way with his next wife.

As well as presenting their feelings of superiority, both poets also present rulers who are arrogant. In Ozymandias, Shelley illustrates the arrogance of the ruler through the inscription on his statue: ‘king of kings’. Not only did Ozymandias have a statue erected for himself to show off his power and might, but he also chose to describe himself ‘king’ among kings, implying that he is better than all other rules. This phrase is also used several times in the Bible to describe Jesus, the son of God, and through this allusion, Shelley emphasises the total and ironic arrogance of Ozymandias, whose rule ends and whose power fades. Shelley uses the arrogance of Ozymandias to criticise other leaders, such as King George, who was king of England at the time Shelley was writing. The speaker in Browning’s poem is also presented as arrogant when Browning has the Duke describe his ‘nine-hundred year old’ name as a ‘gift’. By choosing the image of a ‘gift’, Browning highlights that the Duke believes any wife should see their marriage as a huge honour that has been bestowed upon her. Browning has the Duke take care to include the age of his family name- ‘nine-hundred’ years old- to imply that his wife should have been particularly grateful to have married into a family with such years of wealth and status attached to their name. By presenting the Duke’s arrogance and pride in his family name, Browning highlights the inequality between men and women in the Victorian era, where women were expected to be grateful for marrying wealthy men, and these men could use their wealth and status to control their wives. Both poets, through the arrogance of Ozymandias and the Duke, criticise issues in society at the time they were writing.

Both poems explore power, but while Ozymandias has lost his power, the Duke remains powerful. The forms of both poems allow the writers to suggest power and control: Shelley’s sonnet has a strict rhyme scheme and line length, mirroring the control that Ozymandias once had. On the other hand, Browning chooses to write a dramatic monologue so that the reader hears the Duke’s voice, but no other reply. We only hear his perspective. In a similar way to the rhyme scheme in Ozymandias, Browning uses rhyming couplets to mirror the control the Duke has over his wife. However, Shelley makes clear that Ozymandias is no longer powerful by describing his statue as a ‘colossal wreck’. This imagery helps the reader to imagine that the statue has been destroyed and lies in pieces on the sand. Shelley’s use of the adjective ‘colossal’ represents how huge Ozymandias’s power was when he was still alive, but the word ‘wreck’ makes clear to the reader that the statue- and Ozymandias’ power- has been destroyed. In a way typical for Romantic poets, Shelley was interested in the power of nature, and the poem Ozymandias illustrates that nature is far more powerful than humanity. Ozymandias may have been ‘mighty’ when he was alive, but since his death, nature has destroyed his statue and ‘nothing beside remains.’ In contrast, the Duke is still in power in My Last Duchess. Browning conveys that the Duke maintained his power by writing ‘I gave commands, then all smiles stopped’. In other words, the Duke is proudly claiming that he had his wife murdered in order to prevent her from speaking to other men. Browning’s use of the words ‘gave commands’ indicate that the Duke was not willing to kill his wife himself; he used the power he had to have someone else kill her. By controlling the portrait of his deceased wife, the Duke has ultimate power over her, which he wanted so much while she was alive. Furthermore, in the poem, the Duke is speaking to a messenger about a prospective second marriage, implying that not only gained power over his ‘last’ wife, but that he may well do the same thing in a second marriage. Browning seems to be criticising the power that wealthy men had Victorian society through the Duke’s tyrannical actions: he had his wife murdered when he thought he could not control her ‘smiles’ and he prefers her as a portrait so that he can completely possess and control her.

Mr Hanson's English

Discovering english and film, comparing my last duchess with ozymandias.

Here are the slides from this week’s lessons. The PPT is available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8c2fmlz1vqopfv7/My%20Last%20Duchess%20form%20and%20structure.pptx?dl=0

We began with a short refresher on the poem:

The next lesson was centred on the use of structural features – caesura in particular, so it’s worth thinking about what we mean by structure and form. This analogy was useful:

This was a useful activity in getting students to think about punctuation and line breaks.

We selected a few lines from the poem and explored the ways in which caesura contributes to meaning:

This is the slide I showed to explain dramatic monologue. Thank you to  http://www.rlwclarke.net/Courses/LITS2002/2001-2002/LN12Browning.htm

Finally, here is a grid which contains some details for comparison. One thing I’ve added here is the idea that the Duke is emasculated by his wife. He cannot cope with what he sees as her wandering eyes and it is interesting that he makes a big deal about the ‘bough of cherries some officious fool/Broke in the orchard for her’. Now cherries are a symbol of sexuality and so there is a clear suggestion here that the Duke felt, well, incompetent around his wife.

https://victoriangenderandsexuality.wikispaces.com/My+Last+Duchess+–+notes Some other web-sites:

http://les-drt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/sublime-power-of-art-in-shelleys.html

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What Would Iago Do?

Aqa power and conflict- ‘my last duchess’ and ‘london’.

This series of blogs is based around the incredible tweets posted by Macbeth Insights (@Gcse_macbeth) on poems to compare with ‘My Last Duchess’. I don’t intend to go into the minutiae of structure and language analysis but intend to focus on the higher order comparative ideas that I want my Year 11s to use to enhance their analysis. Any mistakes are my own (as are any brilliant sparks of analytical genius. Just saying.)

Both poems show how inequalities in power always seem to victimise women . It is women who suffer in the transaction of power with men who want ownership over their bodies — whether aristocracy or street prostitutes .

• In ‘MLD’, the Duke portrays his misogynistic tendencies through his biased depiction of his hapless “last duchess”.
• He tells us “[t]hat’s my last duchess”, immediately evoking his sense of ownership through the possessive pronoun “my”. He believes she belongs to him and his tone presents how his victimisation of her is a result of him being a product of a patriarchal society where his authority over his wife would have been absolute.
• The pronoun “that” implies the Duke sees her as an object, which she now literally is, having been reduced to a piece of art that viewers can admire. Arguably, she has become subject to the male gaze, a feminist concept presenting the dehumanisation of the female as she no longer has agency and must be viewed through the lens of the male and admired for her beauty, physique, aesthetic or other narrative that allows the male to control the viewer’s perception of her. Here, the Duke presents her as unfaithful, even unmanageable to the viewer thereby justifying his “commands” that resulted in her “smiles” being “stopped altogether.”
• The adjective “last” implies she’s one of a number: we notice that it makes a sham of his “as long as we both shall live” marriage vows and indicates the life and death power he has over the woman in his life.

Whilst the Duke exerts his power over a ristocratic women signifying that even the wealthy and well-born women are not exempt from the power and victimisation of the patriarchy , Blake depicts the plight of the more obvious victims of society.

• In Blake’s ‘London’, his reference to the “youthful harlot” is almost grotesquely despairing as it implies her lack of a future before she has even had a chance for one. Her youth should represent her on the cusp of womanhood, making choices that lead to a socially acceptable future involving marriage and motherhood. Instead, Blake criticises the poverty, desperation and lack of opportunity due to the rising unemployment caused by the industrial revolution that have colluded to lead her into a life of early prostitution; a hard life and one usually foreshortened by disease, violence or childbirth.
• The “harlot’s curse” reflects her anger at her fate. A “curse” could mean she is swearing- a rather ‘unladylike’ attribute indicating her outcast status: what need does she have of ladylike attributes when the doors to a lady’s future are closed to her? Alternatively, it could foreshadow a blight on future generations as she “[b]lasts the new-born infant’s ear” indicating Blake’s criticism of the vicious cycle of prostitution young women were forced into as what hope would a “new-born” have bred in such circumstances?
• Both the “harlot” and the “Duchess” are victims of inequalities between men and women in terms of circumstance and society. In both cases, the patriarchy has the absolute power to manipulate perceptions of them so that viewed through the lens of the male gaze, they are simply receptacles of male desire to be outcast or even killed when they no longer conform to the ideals desired by society. Despite the Duke’s attempt to manipulate the audience, it becomes evident that the duchess is a victim of an abuse of power and a result of the inequality in society, just as the “harlot” is.
• Their lack of names further dehumanises them, referencing only the roles they occupy from the highest in the land to the lowest. They should be world’s apart yet their fates unite them as victims.

Both poems show how power that is gained through title or heritage typically ends up in the hands of the wrong people — the monarchy behind their “palace walls” in ‘London’ and the Duke in his castle.

• In ‘MLD’, the Duke mounts his “last Duchess”, she is “painted on the wall”, as a trophy and symbolic of the power he wields over his wife. By positioning her there, he directs and controls those who see her and controls the narrative his chosen audience is fed. Being “painted” could be the Duke’s belief that his wife was a harlot too- paint being a reference to make-up, worn more often by whores- not in the literal sense where she sold her body for money, but in his belief that she was unfaithful to him. Perhaps Browning is criticising the blatant abuses of power in the wrong hands as the Duke’s evidently are. His “nine-hundred-years-old name” is symbolic of the family’s long-standing wealth and status but being born into power clearly does not equate to being good with power and this lack of goodness results in the victimisation of women- those most vulnerable to the vicissitudes of patriarchal power.
• In contrast, in ‘London’, Blake’s criticism of the monarchy is more pointed but equally symbolic of the power and responsibility it holds. He states that the monarchy’s responsibility “[r]uns in blood down palace walls”, suggesting its culpability, in his view, for the state of the city that he loves. However, whilst the Duke proudly displays his “painted” trophy, the monarchy hunkers down and hides behind its walls but its guilt is painted on those outer walls nonetheless. Whilst the Duke accepts and even flaunts his power over his dependent, the monarchy holds its silence but the “blood”, symbolic of its failings, represents its accountability regardless.
• The walls of the buildings both the Duke and the monarchy occupy are symbols of their power, therefore, anything represented on each, becomes a symbol of the abuses of their power and the victimisation they enact upon those who depend upon them for their very lives.

That’s it for this time, let me know your thoughts. Next up will be ‘My Last Duchess’ with ‘Ozymandias’.

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4 thoughts on “aqa power and conflict- ‘my last duchess’ and ‘london’”.

what grade is the writing above written at? I’m in year 10 and doing my GCSEs next year and wanted to get the higher marks, so I was wondering.

Hi, I’m an English teacher and have written it to extend the knowledge of Y11 students. This blog would be very useful to help reach for the top grades.

can anyone help on writting how the poems london and my last duchess present the abuse of power i am really stuck

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GCSE English Poetry Level 9 Model Essay - 'Tissue' vs. 'My Last Duchess'

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

22 November 2020

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I got a level 9 in GCSE English Literature after revising from this essay!

An exceptional-quality poetical comparison essay written by a level 9 GCSE Student in accordance with the AQA English Literature syllabus. This essay has been marked as level 9. The resource is also suitable for other exam boards such as Edexcel and OCR.

‘Tissue’ by Imtiaz Dharker is compared with ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning on the theme of power. Both poems are part of the AQA poetry anthology in the Power and Conflict section.

Useful for both individuals and classes- to analyse the points, language and structure of the essay in order to help one to understand the quality and techniques that AQA are looking for in the GCSE English Literature exam.

Key Terms: Level 9, Grade 9, AQA, English Literature, Exemplar Essay, Example Essay, Model Essay, OCR, Edexcel, The Charge of the Light Brigade, London, Tissue, My Last Duchess, Checking Out Me History, Bayonet Charge, Power and Conflict, Poetry, GCSE, analyse, learn, mark, 9-1

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3x GCSE English Lit Model Poetry Essays

**I got a level 9 in GCSE English Literature after revising from these essays!** Save 31% (subject to prices changing)- an excellent offer considering that several essays on here cost that much individually, and you get 3! Three exceptional-quality poetical comparison essays written by a level 9 GCSE Student in accordance with the AQA English Literature syllabus. This essay has been marked as level 9. The resource is also suitable for other exam boards such as Edexcel and OCR. Useful for both individuals and classes- to analyse the points, language and structure of the essay in order to help one to understand the quality and techniques that AQA are looking for in the GCSE English Literature exam. All poems are part of the AQA poetry anthology in the Power and Conflict section. Titles: - ‘Compare the ways poets present ideas about power in ‘Tissue’ and one other poem in the Power and Conflict anthology.’ - Compare how Blake’s presentation of the power of humans in ‘London’ compares with that of one other poet in the Power and Conflict anthology. - Discuss the presentation of the reality of war in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and one other poem from the Power and Conflict anthology. See individual resources for more information. Key Terms: Level 9, Grade 9, AQA, English Language, Literature, exemplar, model, new GCSE, OCR, Edexcel, GCSE, analyse, learn, mark, 9-1

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Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology

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University of leeds - ba criminal justice and criminology.

Playwright and published poet offering support with GCSE English Language and Literature!

Notes || Additional Reading & Videos

This topic is included in  Paper 2 . You can find notes and guides for it below.

• A Guide to Structure, Form, Rhythm, Meter
• Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes
• Checking Out Me History - John Agard
• Exposure - Wilfred Owen
• Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland
• London - William Blake
• My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
• Ozymandias - Percy Shelley
• Poppies - Jane Weir
• Remains - Simon Armitage
• Storm On The Island - Seamus Heaney
• The Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Lord Tennyson
• The Emigree - Carol Rumens
• The Man He Killed - Poetry
• The Prelude - William Wordsworth - Poetry
• Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker
• War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy

Additional Reading & Videos

• Ozymandias – English Timeline
• London – Analysis by Clare Crossman
• London – English Timeline
• London – in depth analysis
• The Prelude – The full version
• The Prelude – Additional notes
• My Last Duchess – Different readings
• Storm on the Island – Analysis of the Context, Form and Structure
• Remains – Simon Armitage’s Official Website
• Remains – Simon Armitage’s Video on Remains
• Kamikaze – How Japan’s youth see the Kamikaze pilots of WW2
• Kamikaze – some supplementary thoughts
• Kamikaze – two pilots who cheated death
• Kamikaze – interviews with Kamikaze pilots

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — My Last Duchess — The difference between “Ozymandias” by Percy Shelley and “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

The Difference Between "Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley and "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning

• Categories: My Last Duchess Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley Robert Browning

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Published: Feb 12, 2019

Words: 724 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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