1. My Last Duchess
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" is a dramatic monologue by the Duke of Ferrara. ... The initial focus was on a painting of the duke's last Duchess. The duke begins to describe the appearance of his last Duchess, and notes that only he controls her countenance behind the curtain that covers her portrait "since none puts by the curtains I have drawn for you, but I" (lines 9-10). As the poem develops, the duke explains that his last duchess was too easily impressed with the slightest things: "A heart--how shall I say?... The duke tries to convey to the reader that his last wife d...