Riassunto
Riassunto di Romanze drammatiche
A chi è rivolto
Readers who love voices, who enjoy a story told by someone with a secret, and who like poems that sound best read aloud, from ballads and folktales to lovers' quarrels and court intrigue.
Che cos’è questo libro
Dramatic Romances is a gathering of Robert Browning's narrative and speaking poems, each one voiced by a character caught in a single charged moment. Browning, who died in 1889, wrote these pieces in the middle of the nineteenth century. Instead of speaking in his own voice, he lets soldiers, dukes, lovers, monks, patriots and piers of the Church speak for themselves, and the reader learns who they are by how they talk.
The collection ranges from a few lines to long tales. You meet a dying boy in Napoleon's camp, a Duke of Ferrara showing off a painting, a Venetian pair in a gondola, a piper who leads away the children of Hamelin, and a knight who walks toward a dark tower. This summary takes the poems in groups, names the best known, looks at the images and sounds that recur, and shows how to read them aloud. First, the poems of honour, pride and war.
In questo riassunto
- 1Speakers who reveal themselvesFree
- 2Courage, loyalty and the patriot
- 3Love, danger and the glove
- 4Tales, legends and the Pied Piper
- 5Scholars, heretics and faith under strain
- 6Sound, form and the dark tower
Punto chiave 1 di 6
Speakers who reveal themselves
The central idea of the collection is the dramatic monologue. A speaker talks to a listener, and the poem lets us hear more than the speaker means to say. My Last Duchess is the clearest case. The Duke of Ferrara shows an envoy a painting of his former wife, and while he praises the artist Fra Pandolf, he lets slip what he disliked in her.
The duchess smiled at everyone, thanked men for small gifts, and ranked his old family name with a bough of cherries or a ride on a white mule. He says he chose never to stoop. He turns at once to the dowry talks for a new bride and points out a bronze of Neptune taming a sea horse.
Other poems work the same way. In Instans Tyrannus a ruler describes his hatred of one humble man who will not break, and he ends frightened. In A Light Woman a man explains how he drew a woman away from his friend, and the telling shows him as the lighter one. In Porphyria's Lover a calm voice describes a terrible act in the plainest tone. Sanity and its absence sit very close together in these voices.
When you read these, ask what the speaker wants and what he hides. The pleasure lies in the gap between the two.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Romanze drammatiche
What is Dramatic Romances by Robert Browning about?
It is a collection of narrative and speaking poems in which soldiers, dukes, lovers, monks and travellers each tell their own story, from the tale of the Pied Piper to the dark tower of Childe Roland.
What is a dramatic monologue?
A dramatic monologue is a poem spoken by one character to a listener. My Last Duchess is the best known example, where the Duke of Ferrara reveals his nature while showing a portrait to an envoy.
Which poems are in Dramatic Romances?
The book includes My Last Duchess, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Porphyria's Lover, The Flight of the Duchess, A Grammarian's Funeral, In a Gondola, The Statue and the Bust, and Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.
Is The Pied Piper of Hamelin based on a true story?
It draws on a long-told legend of the German town of Hamelin. Browning wrote his version for the young son of the actor William Macready, and it sets the loss of the children in July 1376.
Are Browning's poems easy to read aloud?
Yes, the strong rhymes and lively rhythms help. Poems such as The Pied Piper and The Flight of the Duchess bounce along, and each speaker has a distinct voice to try.