Understanding the poem "Porphyria's Lover".

Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mr. Young, and I'm so glad that you could join me for another lesson in this poetry sequence.

In today's lesson, we are going to be looking at a rather gruesome poem called "Porphyria's Lover." So without further ado, let's get started.

So today's lesson has a very clear learning outcome.

So by the end of today's lesson, everybody will be able to explain how Browning, the poet, presents a transgressive and abusive relationship.

So as in any lesson, we have some very important words, our key words.

So let's take a look at what they are.

Unsettled, to be in a state of uncertainty or unease.

Instigate, to initiate or provoke an action or event.

Transgressive, involving actions that go beyond accepted boundaries or norms. So we'd say some of the behaviour in the poem today could be considered transgressive.

Marvel, to be filled with wonder or astonishment; to admire greatly.

And finally, misogyny, hatred, prejudice, or discrimination against women.

So as always, I do encourage you just to pause the video, and jot these words down, particularly if they are new to you because we're gonna be using them quite a bit in today's lesson.

So we have two very clear learning cycles in today's lesson.

So super excited for the first learning cycle where we are going to read this rather fantastic, but also rather gruesome poem called "Porphyria's Lover." And then in learning cycle two, we are going to be developing our understanding of the poem.

So in our first learning cycle, we're gonna take it in, we're gonna enjoy it, develop a personal response to it, and then we're gonna start developing our understanding of it in a bit more detail.

So let's get started.

So quick discussion question to kick us off immediately.

So we are going to look at a poem called "Porphyria's Lover." So what predictions could you make based on this title? And remember a title can do an awful lot of heavy lifting in poetry.

It can tell us an awful lot about what we are going to be greeting.

So hit that pause button, have a quick discussion in class or drop down some ideas if you're working independently, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, my goodness, what a fantastic and enthusiastic start to today's lessons.

Let's keep that going throughout today's learning.

So a couple of things that we could have said are as follows.

So firstly, we know the poem is likely to be about a romantic relationship of some kind.

We know there is a lover, we know there is somebody called Porphyria's lover that introduces the idea of romance in some way.

We've also got the idea of an unnamed narrator defined only by their relationship to Porphyria.

So Porphyria is a person, a woman in this poem.

So they do not have their own identity it seems from this title.

We could also say the narrator could be self-centered or possessive in how the title is framed.

The relationship may be a dysfunctional one.

And finally, Porphyria.

Porphyria is also a disease, a kind of disease from the Victorian era, which causes extreme hallucinations.

And maybe this could suggest that the narrator is similarly unreliable in the way that hallucinations can be unreliable.

Great work on your own discussions to kick us off with learning cycle one.

So what I would like you to do then is to read "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning, and there is a copy in the additional materials.

So when you are reading, you may wish to use the glossary below to help you understand the poems. There's some quite kind of challenging vocabulary there alongside its definitions.

So I would like you to pause the video, read the poem, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, well done on that.

And fantastic focus to start this lesson.

I've really hope you enjoyed that poem.

I really hope you enjoyed some of its ideas, and that you kind of enjoyed reading that kind of dramatic conclusion as well.

So some discussion questions for us then please.

Number one.

"How do you think the speaker feels in the poem and why?" And number two.

"How did the poem make you feel and why?" So just a quick personal reflection, pause the video, complete those questions, and then do push play when you'd like to continue.

Okay, so now we are going to take a closer look at this poem as a class.

So remember, the poem begins as follows.

It says "The rain set early in to-night, 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.

When glided in Porphyria straight, she shut the cold out and the storm, and kneeled and made the cheerless grate." So my questions for you as are as follows.

So what is the setting of the poem and what effect does Porphyria have on the storm? So have a quick discussion, jot down some ideas and then push play when you'd like to continue.

Okay, well firstly, what is the setting? I really enjoy the opening to this poem and it has this kind of powerful storm that did its worst, this kind of really kind of interesting opening that certainly foreshadows some of the kind of traumatic events that happen in the poem later on.

And what effect does Porphyria have on this storm? Well, she literally shuts out the storm, but potentially as well.

So she kind of comes in, closes the door, but also kind of figuratively as well.

Maybe she's such a warm, compassionate person that she literally kind of eradicates this storm just by her presence alone.

The poem continues.

"Blaze up, and all the cottage warm; which done, she rose, and from her form withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl and laid her soil gloves by, united, her hat and let the damp hair fall.

And last, she sat down by my side and called me.

When no voice replied, she put my arm about her waist." Again, some questions.

How is Porphyria presented here and how does the narrator act towards Porphyria? I think we're starting to get some indications of that dysfunctional relationship, aren't we? So once again, hit that pause button, have a quick discussion, jot down some ideas, push play when you like to see a little bit of feedback.

Okay, great work on that.

I'm hearing some people really identifying similar things to what I have on the board here.

So well, how is Porphyria presented? We get that kind of continuation of her warm presence, don't we? She's presented as a very warm and caring figure.

Now "all" the cottage is warm and she seeks to comfort the narrator.

Again, this could be the kind of figuratively as well.

There's a fire going that Porphyria is tending, but she could also be warming the place with her presence alone.

And again, how does the narrator act towards Porphyria? Well, he does not seem to embrace this warmth, does he? The narrator is cold and distant.

He references her "soiled" gloves, which could have connotations of cheating, and could even highlight the narrator's paranoia.

Let's continue the poem but before we do that, let's have a quick check for understanding.

So there are early indications that the relationship between the narrator and Porphyria is strained.

What we mean by strained is kind of difficult in some way.

Is that true or false? Hit that pause button, complete the check for understanding, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Yep, you've got it.

It's absolutely true.

It does appear to be strained in some way.

But let's justify that.

Why is their relationship strained? Is it, A, there is a violent storm mirroring their violent confrontation? Or is it, B, the narrator is distant towards Porphyria pretending he doesn't hear her when she speaks to him.

Again, hit that pause button, complete the task, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, great job to all the individuals and groups that selected B, the narrator is distant towards Porphyria, pretending he doesn't hear her when she speaks to him.

A is true to an extent there is a violent storm, but there is absolutely has not been a violent confrontation between them.

So we would say B is the correct answer.

Excellent work if you picked up on that.

Okay.

the poem continues.

"And made her smooth white shoulder bare, and all her yellow hair displaced.

And stooping made my cheek lie there, and spread, o'er all, her yellow hair, murmuring how she loved me - she.

Too weak for all her heart's endeavour, to set its struggling passion free, from pride and vainer ties dissever, and give herself to me for ever." Again, so we're starting to get a real indication of the possessive nature of this narrator here, aren't we? So what does the narrator seem to focus on at this part of the poem and why? Well, I would say the following.

So in the Victorian era, hair could be considered a symbol of a woman's sexuality, and was only worn loosely in private.

Therefore, her letting her hair fall loose, and baring her shoulders could suggest an intimate and passionate nature, something the speaker seems to increasingly want only for himself.

So he kind of wants something that nobody else should have, in his opinion.

The poem continues.

"But passion sometimes would prevail, nor could to-night's gay feast restrain a sudden thought of one so pale for love of her and all in vain: So, she was come through wind and rain.

Be sure I looked up at her eyes, happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshipped me; surprise.

Made my heart swell, and still it grew while I debated what to do." So what conflict do you start to notice here in the poem? So hit that pause button, have a quick discussion, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, we are starting to see a struggle here with the speaker's conflicting emotions, feeling happiness at Porphyria's apparent affection for him, but also acknowledging his jealousy of seeing one so pale of love for her.

So it's worth mentioning at this point in the poem, we do not know the relationship between Porphyria and the narrator.

There are certain hints that this might be a kind of illicit affair of some kind, but that is not confirmed.

So we are starting to see this kind of jealousy here that the narrator has.

He does not want anybody to love Porphyria in the way that he does.

So again, what does Browning end the stanza with and why? Hit that pause button, have a quick discussion, do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, some really excellent conversations taking place there.

I really enjoy the end to this stanza.

I think it really builds tension in the poem, doesn't it? And you know exactly what happens, this kind of gruesome conclusion to the poem.

And I think this is where we start to kind of feel nervous and tense as an audience, don't we? So we could say the stanza builds tension as the speaker debates his next actions for shadowing what is to come later in the poem.

So we have reached our first practise task of today's lesson so let's make it count.

I would like you to continue reading the poem, and then I would like you to summarise it being sure to include the events of the poem's conclusion.

So here are some sentence starters to guide you.

So we could say "'Porphyria's Lover' tells the haunting story of.

." And I would like you to challenge yourself to use keywords from today's lesson.

So words like unsettled, instigate, transgressive, marvel, and misogyny.

So super excited to see how you got with this to showcase your fantastic knowledge of this poem.

So hit that pause button, complete the practise task, and then do push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, fantastic work on that practise task.

It is lovely as a teacher to see you developing your knowledge, and to produce really first rate work in response to this poem.

A poem we didn't know at the start of the lesson, and now we are really developing a really strong understanding.

So really, really well done.

So here is Izzy's summary, an example of how we could have approached the task.

"So in "Porphyria's Lover," the speaker, overwhelmed by his intense love for Porphyria, strangles her with her own hair, believing it to be the only way to preserve the moment of her love for him.

He describes her death as painless, and believes he has finally won her love completely keeping her forever by his side." So really nice summary there from Izzy that really gets to the heart of the poem's key ideas.

So are there any opportunities to develop Izzy's summary? So it includes the lesson's key words.

How could we include words like unsettled, instigate, transgressive, marvel, and misogyny? So have a quick go, and see how you can improve Izzy's response.

Okay, great job on that.

We can amend Izzy's work.

So it now includes three of our key words.

So we could say "Porphyria's lover depicts the culmination of a transgressive act driven by the speaker's intense love and possessiveness towards Porphyria.

In a moment of misogyny and unchecked passion, he strangles her with her own hair, believing it to be the only way to possess her fully.

The end of the poem reveals the speaker's deluded perception of love, and how it has shifted from him once marvelling at Porphyria, to now committing a horrific act to preserve a fleeting moment of affection." So really great example there of how we can incorporate our keywords into our summaries.

Okay, we have reached learning cycle two already, where we are going to develop our understanding of this fantastic poem even more, so let's get started.

So "Porphyria's Lover" is a dramatic monologue about a man who struggles to manage his emotions towards his wife, and ends up strangling her.

After killing her, he spends the entire night with her lifeless body seeming to be more infatuated with her in death than he was during her life.

See, I told you it's quite a gruesome poem, didn't I? So quick discussion question for me then please.

Having read the poem and understood its major plot points, what would you say are some of its main themes? Remember, a theme is a repetitive idea, a recurring idea in a literary work.

So what are the key themes of "Porphyria's Lover?" So once again, hit that pause button, complete the task, have a discussion, drop down some ideas, and then do push play when you'd like to continue.

Okay, once again, some really fantastic discussions taking place across this class and it's really lovely to hear your interpretation of the themes.

So after reading the poem again, Andy identified the poem's main themes.

This is what Andy has said.

He said, "For me the poem's major themes are love and obsession, power and control and madness." I think it's really difficult to argue against that, isn't it? We see those themes again and again in the poem "Porphyria's Lover." So my question for you, a discussion task, is can you choose an event from the poem and describe how it links to one of these themes? So choose either love and obsession, power and control or madness, and match it with a key plot point from the poem that really showcases that theme.

So hit that pause button, complete the task, and then do push play when you'd like to continue.

Okay, really, really excellent work on that task.

It is a really, really good skill in English to be able to kind of spot these themes, and also justify them, say why these themes are present in a text.

Let's look at an example of how we could approach it.

So event.

What event have we got? Well, we could say the narrator believes he did the right thing, believing God will not condemn him.

So how could we link that to theme? Well, we could say madness reaches its peak as he rationalises his crime, believing his act of control was an ultimate expression of love, and that he faces no divine retribution.

So we could absolutely link that to madness.

So check for understanding time for me then, please.

The poem is a first person dramatic monologue.

Is that true or is that false? Hit that pause button, complete the task, and then do push play when you'd like to see which is correct.

Okay, it's of course true, isn't it? It's absolutely a dramatic monologue, but let's justify that please.

So how would we justify that statement? Is it, A, the poem is written from the perspective of Browning himself, presented as an unnamed narrator.

Or is it, B, the poem is fictitious written from the perspective of an unnamed narrator.

So once again, hit that pause button, complete the task, and then push play when you'd like to proceed.

Okay, word on to everybody who identified B as the correct answer.

The poem is indeed fictitious.

That means it is made up.

It is a creation of Browning's, and it is written from the perspective of an unnamed narrator.

Remember, we never get the name of this narrator.

They are merely or simply known as Porphyria's lover.

Great job if you picked up on that.

Okay, we have reached our final practise task of today's lesson.

So let's make this one count.

So what you have on the board in front of you are a series of true or false statements or a series of statements, I should say, which we are going to work out whether they are true or false.

So below are a series of statements about the poem, and I would like you to decide whether these are true or false, and crucially to justify these statements with evidence from the poem itself.

So let's take a look at an example of that.

So we've got one here.

"'Porphyria's Lover' is an example of a dramatic monologue," and we absolutely know that is true, don't we? But how could we justify that? Well, we could say the poem is told from one perspective, an invented murderous speaker who reveals many personal details to the reader.

Our other statements are as follows.

"The setting in the opening section of the poem uses pathetic fallacy to reflect Porphyria's emotions." "Porphyria instantly changes the atmosphere of the cottage when she arrives." "Porphyria is shy and nervous when she arrives." "The speaker seems jealous that Porphyria won't give up her social connections to be with him." "The speaker is portrayed as controlling and possessive even before he kills her." And finally, "The speaker immediately feels guilt and horror at his actions." So I would like you to tell me, are they true or false and then justify them with key content from the poem.

Really excited to see how you got on with this one.

So hit that pause button, complete the task, and then do push play when you like to move on to some feedback.

Okay, excellent work on that final practise task of today's lesson.

It is absolutely lovely to see you have such a strong knowledge of this poem, and being able to justify it in the way that you have just done.

Really, really well done to all of you.

So here's how you could have approached this task.

So let's look at one of those statements.

"The setting in the opening section of the poem uses prophetic fallacy to reflect Porphyria's emotions." Is that true or false? Well, I would say that is false.

That is absolutely false.

We do not have any evidence of that.

And why? Well, "The spiteful and sudden wind reflects the emotions of the speaker who is clearly feeling jealous, angry, and resentful towards Porphyria." Let's take a look at another one.

"So Porphyria instantly changes the atmosphere of the cottage when she arrives." Is that true or false? Well, we'd absolutely say that's true, isn't it? We spoke about that in some detail in this lesson.

She absolutely transforms the atmosphere in the cottage.

But how? Well "Porphyria literally makes the cottage warm by lighting a fire, but perhaps her shutting out the cold suggests she also changes the speaker's cold emotions, her lighting ablaze, igniting his passionate feelings." And great job if you identified anything similar in your own work.

Let's look at some more.

"Porphyria is shy and nervous when she arrives." Again, absolutely false.

There is no evidence given to us as a reader that she is shy and nervous.

And again, Porphyria is portrayed as the opposite really, isn't she? "She's bold and confident.

Her disrobing, baring her shoulder, and letting her hair loose would be considered very sexually provocative by a Victorian audience." And another one, "The speaker seems jealous that Porphyria won't give up her social connections to be with him." This one I would say is true, and we would justify it by saying, "The speaker moans that Porphyria is too weak to cut herself off from to sever her 'vainer ties.

' In other words, her prestigious connections.

This seems to hint she's of higher social status than the speaker," perhaps a cause for his resentment.

Again, great job if you identified anything similar in your own justifications.

Let's look at the last two.

"The speaker is portrayed as controlling and possessive even before he kills her." Well, yes, I would say this is definitely true.

That comes across from the very beginning, doesn't it? And we could justify it by saying, "The speaker seems annoyed that Porphyria doesn't want to belong to him alone.

He wants her to give herself to him for ever." And again, the speaker immediately feels guilt and horror at his actions.

Well that is false, there is no indication that he feels any guilt, remorse, or horror whatsoever.

And we can say, "The speaker props Porphyria up, kisses her and sits with her all night.

He also deluded tries to convince himself and the reader that she's glad to be dead and be his alone.

He even describes her as smiling." So absolutely not the actions of somebody who feels guilt and horror for what they have done.

We have reached the end of today's lesson, so it has been an absolute joy and a pleasure to teach this lesson to you today, and to read this fantastic poem with you.

So let's recap what we have looked at.

So firstly, "The poem starts with the speaker feeling unsettled but is soon warmed physically and emotionally by Porphyria's arrival.

Porphyria begins to undress and instigate intimacy with the speaker.

The speaker seems to want ownership of Porphyria and is jealous.

She has a life outside of his.

The speaker strangles Porphyria with her own hair and marvels how he can keep Porphyria like a doll.

And finally, Browning was writing at a time when Porphyria's sexual and suggestive manner would have been transgressive." Once again, it's been a great pleasure to teach you again this lesson, and I really look forward to teaching you on another lesson in this sequence.

So thank you very much and goodbye.