Robert Browning, My Last Duchess

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Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Robert Browning

My Last Duchess (Literature To Go, p. 446)

Listen to “My Last Duchess,” read by Richard Howard.

Recorded October 3, 1994, at the Morgan Library, New York City. Used with the consent of Richard Howard.

Considerations for Critical Thinking and Writing

  1. first response. What do you think happened to the duchess?

  2. To whom is the duke addressing his remarks about the duchess in this poem? What is ironic about the situation?

  3. Why was the duke unhappy with his first wife? What does this reveal about him? What does the poem’s title suggest about his attitude toward women in general?

  4. What seems to be the visitor’s response (lines 53–54) to the duke’s account of his first wife?

  5. connection to another selection. Write an essay describing the ways in which the speakers of “My Last Duchess” and Katharyn Howd Machan’s “Hazel Tells LaVerne” (Literature To Go, p. 379) inadvertently reveal themselves.