" The poem appeals to the sense of sight beginning with "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall"(1). This enables the reader to picture the setting of the poem. Also lines 9-10: "since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I," help to re-establish the setting of the poem and gives the reader a sense of the painting hanging behind a curtain, which no one but the Duke can open. Browning also uses imagery to describe the picture of the Duchess. Such as lines 15-16: "Her mantle laps over my lady's wrist too much, " and line 19: "Half flush that dies along her throat." Browning incorporates other visual images to describe the Duchess" affection towards other objects than the Duke. Such as lines 26-29.
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.
The figurative language in "My Last Duchess" describes the Duke's dissatisfaction with his late wife. Metaphors predominate the poem. Browning says, "A heart too soon made glad" to describe how the Duchess showed little to no respect for her husband. "she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name with anybody's gift" represents how the Duke's wife treated him the same as she would treat any other man. "I choose never to stoop" refers to the Duke's incapability to share with his wife his dissatisfaction with her. Browning expresses the Duke's murder of his wife as "all smiles stopped together." In addition to these metaphors, metonymies and allusions occur once. .
The metonymy "She had a heart too soon made glad" symbolizes how other men easily impressed the Duke's wife. The allusion to Neptune, "taming a sea-horse" suggests that the Duke wishes for his wife to act submissive or he will tame her in the same manner as the last. The figurative language in "My Last Duchess" also includes verbal irony. The Duke's monologue has a slight undertone of satire, which enables the reader to understand the depth of the Duke's animosity for his late wife.