CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY AND MY LAST DUCHESS NATURE

NATURE

‘Dem tell me’ CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY

CARIBEAN DILECT,

*REPETITION OF DEM TELL ME IN POEM

‘There’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call’

MY LAST DUCHESS
rhyming couplets reflects the speakers desire to have power and control.
*Both poems use of the first person allows the poets to show the speaker’s feelings about power. In Checking out me history, he feels he has no power and in My last Duchess, he has all the power.

Dem tell me about Lord Nelson

and Waterloo, but dem never tell

me about Shaka de great zulu’
*CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY

*the Caribbean

figures are just as worthy of recognition, and in his

eyes, more so.

*

‘That spot of joy’

*LAST DUCHESS

*REPETITION, The spot represents a blush on his wife’s cheek and by

repeating it, Browning shows ho displeased the Duke

is with it. He feels he has lost his power over her.

In My last Duchess the Duke feels

that he has lost power over his

wife when she flirts with other

men.

In a similar way, Agard has had no

power over who he learns about in

history at school, so was

powerless.

Bandage up me eye with me own

history

Blind me to me own identity’

*CHECKING OUT ME HISTORY

*VERB BANDAGE QUITE IRONIC AS The word bandage is associated with healing injuries so

it is ironic that here, the bandage has been used to

create a handicap for the speaker and make him ‘blind’

‘I gave commands; then all smiles

stopped together’
*MY LAST DUCHESS

*euphemism

*The reader is left to interpret what this means and

there is a strong suggestion that the Duke organises for

the Duchess to be killed. It is cold and clinical language.

*In Checking out me History, Agard

had little power as a child and was

prevented from learning about his

culture and therefore had little

power. In contrast, the Duke

shows how because of his money

and status, he has power, which

he uses in the extreme.

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