1812-1889 · English Victorian poet known for his dramatic monologues
About Robert Browning
Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet born in Camberwell, London, and largely educated in his father's library. He made the dramatic monologue his signature form, beginning with Dramatic Lyrics (1842). In 1846 he married the poet Elizabeth Barrett and lived with her in Italy until her death in 1861; his long poem The Ring and the Book (1868-1869), also set in Italy, brought him wide fame in later life.
My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue of 56 lines, first published in Robert Browning's Dramatic Lyrics in 1842 and headed Ferrara. The speaker is a Renaissance Duke of Ferrara, and his listener, who never speaks, is an envoy sent by a Count to arrange the Duke's marriage to the Count's daughter.