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Porphyria's Lover (Robert Browning) key quotes: every quotation analysed
16 quotations from Porphyria's Lover (Robert Browning), each with its place in the poem, what the words are doing, the techniques at work and how to use it in a AQA GCSE English Literature essay. By voice: The speaker (11), Porphyria (5). Indexed by theme below.
A quotation is worth marks only when it is exact and doing work. Porphyria's Lover is examined on 8702 Paper 2, Section B — Poetry: Love and Relationships (closed book; the named poem is printed, compared with one other cluster poem from memory; AO1, AO2 and AO3 context), and what scores is the analysis. Every entry here gives the analysis first: read the quotation, then the line on what it is doing, then close the page and say it back. The Grade 9 Notes carry the reading these quotations serve — voice, form, context, the comparison essay — and the gate where you teach it back.
By theme
Possession and control (8) · Gender and the silenced woman (5) · Madness and reason (3) · Religion and judgement (2) · Desire (1) · Power (1)
The speaker — 11 quotations
The speaker: the reading in full, in the notes →
“The sullen wind was soon awake”
Opening
What it is doing. The personified wind mirrors the speaker's sullen mood and anticipates violence.
Techniques. pathetic fallacy · personification
In an essay. Use to open on the storm as the speaker's mind.
Themes: Madness and reason
“It tore the elm-tops down for spite”
Opening
What it is doing. The storm is spiteful and destructive, foreshadowing the speaker's act.
Techniques. pathetic fallacy · foreshadowing
In an essay. Use to show violence in nature before violence in the man.
Themes: Possession and control
“I listened with heart fit to break”
Opening
What it is doing. The speaker is heartbroken and desperate before she arrives.
Techniques. emotional state
In an essay. Use to explain the desperation behind the act.
Themes: Desire
“Happy and proud; at last I knew”
The turning point
What it is doing. Pride swells in him as he interprets her look.
Techniques. self-revelation
In an essay. Use to show pride as the speaker's motive.
Themes: Possession and control
“While I debated what to do”
The turning point
What it is doing. He deliberates calmly before killing — reason, not frenzy.
Techniques. deliberation · calm tone
In an essay. Use to argue the speaker's chilling rationality.
Themes: Madness and reason
“That moment she was mine, mine, fair”
The turning point
What it is doing. The repetition of ‘mine’ shows love as ownership.
Techniques. repetition · possessive pronoun
In an essay. The key line for any essay on possession.
Themes: Possession and control
“In one long yellow string I wound”
The killing
What it is doing. Her hair, a sign of beauty, becomes the means of killing.
Techniques. imagery · violent transformation
In an essay. Use to show beauty turned into a weapon.
Themes: Possession and control · Gender and the silenced woman
“And strangled her”
The killing
What it is doing. The killing stated in three plain words.
Techniques. understatement · short sentence
In an essay. Use to discuss the shocking plainness of the voice.
Themes: Possession and control
“I am quite sure she felt no pain”
After the killing
What it is doing. Over-insistent reassurance: self-justification or doubt.
Techniques. repetition · self-justification
In an essay. Use to argue the speaker is convincing himself.
Themes: Madness and reason
“And thus we sit together now”
Ending
What it is doing. The present tense: he is still sitting with the body as he speaks.
Techniques. present tense · shift in time
In an essay. Use to show the speaker frozen in his possession.
Themes: Possession and control
“And yet God has not said a word!”
Final line
What it is doing. The final line: triumph at no punishment, or unease at waiting.
Techniques. exclamation · ambiguous ending
In an essay. End an essay on this line's ambiguity.
Themes: Religion and judgement
Porphyria — 5 quotations
Porphyria: the reading in full, in the notes →
“When glided in Porphyria”
Her arrival
What it is doing. She enters with grace and confidence.
Techniques. verb choice · inversion
In an essay. Use to show her active, confident entrance.
Themes: Gender and the silenced woman
“She shut the cold out and the storm”
Her arrival
What it is doing. She brings warmth and order, controlling the space.
Techniques. active verbs
In an essay. Use to contrast her early agency with her later objectification.
Themes: Gender and the silenced woman · Power
“Murmuring how she loved me”
Her declaration
What it is doing. Her love is reported, not quoted; her voice is filtered through his.
Techniques. reported speech
In an essay. Use to show she never speaks in her own words.
Themes: Gender and the silenced woman
“Porphyria worshipped me”
The turning point
What it is doing. His interpretation of her look; he becomes a god in her eyes.
Techniques. religious language
In an essay. Use to show the speaker's pride and self-deception.
Themes: Religion and judgement · Possession and control
“Perfectly pure and good”
The turning point
What it is doing. The ideal he wants to preserve for ever.
Techniques. idealisation
In an essay. Use with Victorian ideals of female purity.
Themes: Gender and the silenced woman · Possession and control
The quotations by theme
Possession and control (8)
Possession and control in Porphyria's Lover, taught in full →
- “It tore the elm-tops down for spite” — The speaker, Opening
- “Happy and proud; at last I knew” — The speaker, The turning point
- “That moment she was mine, mine, fair” — The speaker, The turning point
- “In one long yellow string I wound” — The speaker, The killing
- “And strangled her” — The speaker, The killing
- “And thus we sit together now” — The speaker, Ending
- “Porphyria worshipped me” — Porphyria, The turning point
- “Perfectly pure and good” — Porphyria, The turning point
Gender and the silenced woman (5)
Gender and the silenced woman in Porphyria's Lover, taught in full →
- “In one long yellow string I wound” — The speaker, The killing
- “When glided in Porphyria” — Porphyria, Her arrival
- “She shut the cold out and the storm” — Porphyria, Her arrival
- “Murmuring how she loved me” — Porphyria, Her declaration
- “Perfectly pure and good” — Porphyria, The turning point
Madness and reason (3)
Madness and reason in Porphyria's Lover, taught in full →
- “The sullen wind was soon awake” — The speaker, Opening
- “While I debated what to do” — The speaker, The turning point
- “I am quite sure she felt no pain” — The speaker, After the killing
Religion and judgement (2)
Religion and judgement in Porphyria's Lover, taught in full →
- “And yet God has not said a word!” — The speaker, Final line
- “Porphyria worshipped me” — Porphyria, The turning point
Desire (1)
- “I listened with heart fit to break” — The speaker, Opening
Power (1)
- “She shut the cold out and the storm” — Porphyria, Her arrival
Think you know them?
Knowing a quotation is the start. On Incandio a poem counts as mastered only once you have taught it back and defended your reading of it against Robert Browning — the two things a quotation list cannot ask of you.
- Teach your reading of Porphyria's Lover · defend it against Browning
- Grade 9 Notes: Porphyria's Lover · Porphyria's Lover on Incandio · Every set text
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