Sweet Revenge - The English Department



Sweet revenge!

Stanza I

• Who is the speaker and what is she doing?

• Where is she and who is she ‘talking’ to?

• Why might the last line come as a shock to us?

• What does the last line tell us about the victim of the poison?

Stanza II

• What do we learn in this stanza about the speaker’s motive?

• What do the couple believe she is doing whilst she is in the laboratory?

Stanza III

• What is she doing in this stanza?

• How is her excitement and enjoyment suggested?

Stanza IV

• What do her questions suggest about her state of mind?

• What contrast does she notice in the substances?

Stanza V

• What does she wish for in this stanza?

Stanza VI

• What examples of her imagined power does she give in this stanza?

Stanza VII

• What is she unhappy about in Stanza VII?

Stanza VIII

• What do we learn about her rival in this stanza?

• Why is the speaker worried about the power of the poison?

Stanza IX

• What does the speaker say she tried to do the night before?

Stanza X

• How will the poison also be punishment for her ex-lover?

• How does the poet create a sense of violence in the words of this stanza?

Stanza XI

• Why does she remove her mask in this stanza?

• What is she willing to give for this one drop of poison?

Stanza XII

• How would you describe the speaker’s mood in this stanza?

• Where is she returning to and to do what?

• She allows the old man a kiss – how might a Victorian audience have reacted to this behaviour?

The whole poem

• How would you describe the poem’s rhythm and rhyme? What effect does this have on the overall tone of the poem?

• Browning takes pleasurable things and turns them upside down. What examples are there of this?

• What is the key emotion presented in the poem?

• What possible interpretations are there of the narrator’s character? Which do you tend to agree with?

• Do you think this poem is meant to be serious/comic/entertaining?

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