My Last Duchess: Robert Browning

This 35-slide lesson explores Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’.

The lesson unpicks Browning’s masterful use of the dramatic monologue form and his key themes of monomania, narcissism, power, control, and objectification. Brief biographical information on Browning is featured, as well as information on the poem’s commonly accepted source and Italian Renaissance culture.

Questions and discussion points are included throughout for students, as well as key vocabulary and analysis of the poem’s form, structure, and rhyme. A creative writing task - in which students write their own poem inspired by Browning’s - is included at the end of the lesson.

This lesson is ideal for GCSE pupils - particularly those studying the poem as part of AQA’s ‘Power and Conflict’ poetry anthology - but could be used with KS3 too.

PowerPoint saved as PDF.