I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out what the significance is of Browning including himself at the end of his poem, "A Light Woman?"
Thanks in advance for any help!
Alicia
He was probably just having fun with the topic.
Les
At the end? Wasn't he there from the first stanza?
So far as our story approaches the end,
Which do you pity the most of us three?
My friend, or the mistress of my friend
With her wanton eyes, or me?
[www.classicauthors.net]
and don't think he is including himself as Robert browning. One of his strong points was writing poems from someone's point of view (especially not very nice characters. So the speaker here is NOT Browning!
Even if the narrator isn't Browning, he is someone famous.
pam
Well, any how, here the story stays,
So far at least as I understand;
And, Robert Browning, you writer of plays,
Here`s a subject made to your hand!
Yeah, but this is the last stanza of the poem, where Browning literally refers to himself as a poet...and writer of this dramatic monolgue!
ah, had forgotten about that line. Well, one of the things it does is that it makes the poem more "real":
It gives the story a background, more layers: someone told the story and then browning wrote it down. At least, this is the feeling you get as a reader.
It refers to a real historic person.
So ... what's the difference between a dramatic romance and a dramatic monolog(ue)?
This quote is from Gutenberg:
NOTES:
"A Light Woman" is the story of a dramatic situation brought
about by the speaker's intermeddling to save his less sophisticated friend from a light woman's toils. He deflects her interest and wins her heart, and this is the ironical outcome: his friendly, dispassionate act makes him seem to his friend a disloyal passion's slave; his scorn of the light woman teaches him her genuineness, and proves himself lighter than she; his futile assumption of the god manoeuvring souls makes the whole story dramatically imply, in a way dear to Browning's heart, the sacredness and worth of each individuality.
[I cannot agree with Porter and Clarke's estimate of the speaker's act as "friendly, dispassionate." They fail to take into account his supercilious attitude toward the man he calls his friend, and he proves to be more self-serving--and more self-deceiving--than they are willing to admit. That is why it is a subject made to Browning's hand.--Editor of the PG text]
[End quote.]
What about a definition for 'light woman'. Not someone like Rosanne Barr or Mama Cass I wouldn't think.
My definition would be someone who 'sleeps around.' Of course, in those days, it may have been someone who flirted around.
pam