Porphyria's Lover

The poem begins with a description of an evening storm with a destructive wind. This opening, along with the title, demonstrates that the poem will be a monologue from a young man who is in the middle of an emotional heartbreak. His personification of the weather indicates that he is sorrowful and possibly agitated. The speaker listens to the “sullen wind” (Line 2) as it tears “the elm-tops down” (Line 3) and “vex[es] the lake” (Line 4). He has suffered a loss, and he feels like his “heart [is] fit to break” (Line 5).

After setting the scene, Porphyria—the major player in the amorous drama—enters from the rainstorm. She immediately stokes the “cheerless grate” (Line 8) and makes the fire “[b]laze up” (Line 9) to heat the speaker’s “cottage” (Line 9). This warmth provides a hopeful note and attributes positive qualities to Porphyria. Her care of the speaker, attending to a basic need, pushes sympathies toward her, even as the lover describes his version of events.

As she takes off her wet outerwear and goes to sit beside him, she speaks to him. Sulking, he refuses to answer her. The break between them, he seems to suggest through this refusal, will not be easily mended. Unable to move him emotionally, Porphyria begins to move him literally: “She put [his] arm about her waist” (Line 16) and “made [his] cheek” (Line 19) rest on her “smooth white shoulder bare” (Line 17). Draping her golden hair over him, she whispers how “she loved [him]” (Line 21). Her warmth extends from the fire to his body. Her loose hair, the bareness of her “shoulder[s]” (Line 17), and the mentioned “shawl” (Line 11) suggest that Porphyria is dressed in evening attire, later confirmed by the mention she has previously been at a “gay feast” (Line 27). The movements between the couple suggest an intricate dance, with Porphyria taking the lead.

In Porphyria’s recounted speech, the reader learns what has split the lovers, the assumed reason the speaker sits in a fireless room on a cold, wet evening. Porphyria previously rejected a liaison because of “pride” (Line 24) and “vainer ties” (Line 24) she could not break despite her “struggling passion” (Line 23). Although she is attracted to the speaker, she has not acted on it due to reasons that might include a class difference and/or a commitment to another—perhaps an intended suitor or expectations from her family or society. In the 19th-century, romantic engagements were still usually arranged by a woman’s parents. The speaker’s residence in a “cottage” (Line 9) might suggest that Porphyria is from a wealthier family than himself and that he is not an acceptable match.

However, Porphyria is besotted enough with him that she risks her social status and reputation to come and see him in the evening. Further, she does so during inclement weather, traveling on foot “through wind and rain” (Line 30). This is because she cannot help but think of “one so pale / For love of her” (Lines 28-29). She can’t bear that his devotion to her is “all in vain” (Line 29). It is important to remember that this is the speaker’s account of what occurred and the reader only has his word regarding what Porphyria wants and desires.

Within the cottage though, she seems the stronger of the two characters, asserting her own choices. She admits she loves him and has broken social boundaries to be with him. The speaker’s “heart swell[s]” (Line 34) at this, and for him a perfect moment is created. In it, Porphyria is “mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good” (Lines 36-37). His possessive attitude is indicated by his pleasure that “at last [he] knew / Porphyria worshipped [him]” (Lines 32-33).

Yet, this moment is not sustainable. If he consummates his clandestine relationship with Porphyria, she is no longer “[p]erfectly pure and good” (Line 37) having betrayed the relationships and world she previously belonged to, including the 19th-century mores which had widespread acceptance. If she consummates her love, she becomes a “fallen woman.”

In a quandary, the lover remarks to the silent listener that he “debate[s] what to do” (Line 35). He decides that the only alternative is to arrest the moment forever. In this way, he will not engage in any passionate acts with Porphyria but will know with certainty she loves him. Wrapping her hair around her throat, he “strangl[es] her” (Line 41). Hair is often symbolic of sexuality, and rather than allowing Porphyria to use it to seemingly seduce him, the lover kills her with it.

He assures himself twice that she felt no pain as she was strangled. Given the physical nature of strangulation—the stoppage of oxygen to the brain or lungs—Porphyria could have lost consciousness. Yet, beforehand, she was probably surprised by the swift, forceful action of wrapping her hair. Despite his denial, she likely would have felt severe pain, especially around her neck, before her breath was cut off. If the speaker was initially a reliable narrator, this notation undoes that perception.

What follows in the aftermath is an odd reversal of Porphyria’s previous actions, now committed by the speaker. The warm fire is echoed in his “burning kiss” (Line 48), and as Porphyria previously took the lover’s head and put it against her shoulder, he does the same. Satisfied with her purity, and her now permanent love of him, the speaker notes her “blue eyes [are] without a stain” (Line 45). He believes—despite not having “guessed […] how / Her darling one wish would be heard” (Lines 56-57), she is “glad” (Line 53). The lover’s view is so warped, he does not—or cannot—imagine what Porphyria might have been thinking when he wrapped her hair around her neck. He believes “all [she] scorned at once is fled” (Line 54). This solidifies that part of his objective in killing Porphyria was to reassert his own control.

The lover’s objective was to deny Porphyria’s own choice of whom to love and when. He succeeds in keeping her “[p]erfectly pure and good” (Line 37) by denying her own desires. Fear of judgment for his deed occurs only briefly when he opens her eyes postmortem, “[a]s a shut bud that holds a bee” (Line 43). When he is not stung, or proverbially struck by lightning, he feels vindicated in taking Porphyria’s life into his hands. This hubris is exemplified when he expresses his joy at being “worshipped” (Line 33) and his satisfactory triumph over the supposedly omnipotent “God [who] has not said a word!” (Line 60). As lover and jury, he alone has condemned Porphyria. Rather than accepting her “struggling passion” (Line 23), he solves it by removing its source, forever freezing his lover in a moment of his own choosing.