Power & Control
Power, Control & Unconventional Love
Love and power are closely linked in the Relationships collection. Three poems explore what happens when love involves control, violence or a refusal to be conventional: Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” Carol Ann Duffy’s “Valentine” and Simon Armitage’s “The Manhunt.” Each poem challenges the reader to think about who holds power in a relationship and how love can be distorted by possession, honesty or trauma.
My Last Duchess — Robert Browning (1842)
Browning (1812–1889) based this poem on a real historical figure: Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, whose first wife Lucrezia de’ Medici died aged 16 under suspicious circumstances. The Duke is speaking to an envoy sent to negotiate his next marriage. As he shows off a portrait of his dead wife, he reveals — without meaning to — that he had her killed because she was too easily pleased by other people and things.
The poem is a dramatic monologue. The Duke believes he is demonstrating his power and good taste, but the reader sees a controlling, jealous man who murdered his wife because he could not tolerate her independent spirit. The gap between the Duke’s self-image and the reader’s perception is the poem’s central irony.
Key language: “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive” — the possessive pronoun “my” in the opening line immediately establishes ownership. The Duchess is “my last” — an object in a collection, with the chilling implication that there will be a next. “Looking as if she were alive” is casually menacing: the reader wonders why she is no longer alive and quickly learns the answer.
“I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together” — this is the poem’s most terrifying moment. The euphemism “gave commands” barely conceals what it means: he ordered her death. The abruptness of “all smiles stopped” mirrors the sudden, final nature of the act. The Duke recounts murder with the same composure he uses to discuss art — the casualness is horrifying.
The poem is written in heroic couplets (rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines), but the enjambment frequently disguises the rhymes, making the speech sound natural and conversational. This reflects the Duke’s smooth, controlled manner — he is performing civility while revealing monstrous truths. The single continuous stanza, with no breaks, mirrors the Duke’s refusal to allow interruption: he controls the conversation just as he controlled the Duchess.
Valentine — Carol Ann Duffy (1993)
Duffy (born 1955) was the UK’s first female and first openly LGBTQ+ Poet Laureate. “Valentine” rejects commercial Valentine’s Day clichés (“Not a red rose or a satin heart”) and instead offers an onion as a gift of love. The onion becomes an extended metaphor for the many layers of a real relationship — including the parts that make you cry.
Key language: “It will blind you with tears / like a lover” — the onion makes you cry, just as real love does. The verb “blind” suggests love can be overwhelming, obscuring clear judgment. “Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips” presents love as intense and lingering, with the adjective “fierce” hinting at aggression as well as passion. As the poem progresses, the tone darkens: “Its scent will cling to your fingers, / cling to your knife” — the final word, “knife,” introduces violence and danger, suggesting that love can wound as well as nourish.
The poem moves from playful to possessive. The opening is witty and charming (“I give you an onion”), but by the end, words like “possessive,” “faithful” and “cling to your knife” suggest love can become controlling and even dangerous. Duffy refuses to pretend love is only positive — her honesty is the poem’s greatest strength.
Key structure: The poem uses free verse with irregular stanza lengths, reflecting the speaker’s rejection of conventional romance. Short, single-line stanzas (“Not a red rose or a satin heart”; “I give you an onion”; “Take it”) interrupt the flow like commands, becoming increasingly insistent. Near the end the one-word line “Lethal” lands like a warning, and the poem then closes on the knife — a sharp, threatening final image.
The Manhunt — Simon Armitage (2007)
Armitage (born 1963) wrote this poem after interviewing Laura, the wife of Eddie Beddoes, a soldier who served in Bosnia and returned with severe PTSD and a bullet still lodged in his body. The poem is written from Laura’s perspective as she carefully, tenderly tries to map her husband’s damaged body and mind. The title “The Manhunt” refers to her search for the man her husband used to be.
Key language: “And handle and hold / the damaged, porcelain collar-bone” — the juxtaposition of “damaged” and “porcelain” captures the soldier’s condition: porcelain is beautiful but fragile, suggesting the body is both precious and breakable. “Handle and hold” uses gentle, careful verbs — Laura treats her husband like something that might shatter. The poem is full of sensory imagery focused on touch, reflecting the intimate, physical process of reconnection.
The “frozen river” is a metaphor for a scar on the soldier’s face. “Frozen” implies the wound has stopped healing emotionally — it is permanent, fixed, cold. “Trace” is an intimate verb: Laura follows the scar with her finger, trying to read the map of his suffering. The phrase “Only then would he let me” establishes the poem’s key dynamic — the soldier controls access to his body and emotions, gradually allowing Laura closer. The enjambment between “trace” and “the frozen river” mirrors this slow, careful process of unfolding.
Key structure: The poem consists of rhyming or near-rhyming couplets that gradually move from the soldier’s external wounds (collar-bone, jaw, chest) to his internal trauma (a “foetus of metal” — the bullet — and his “unexploded mine” of emotional pain). This inward journey mirrors Laura’s search: she starts with what she can see and touch, and slowly reaches the hidden psychological damage that is harder to heal.
Comparing the Three Poems
Who holds power? Browning’s Duke holds absolute power — he controls the Duchess in life and death, and now controls her image. Duffy’s speaker starts as a playful gift-giver but becomes increasingly possessive (“Lethal”). Armitage’s soldier holds the power of access — Laura can only explore as far as he allows. Power operates differently in each relationship: through murder, through language, and through emotional withdrawal.
Unconventional love: None of these poems presents a conventional, happy love story. Browning shows love corrupted by possession. Duffy shows love as honest but potentially dangerous. Armitage shows love as a patient, painful process of reconnection after trauma. Together, they argue that real relationships are far more complex than the “red roses and satin hearts” Duffy rejects.