Monday, December 15, 2008

My Last Duchess

"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning is an exquisit poem. It's based upon Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara.

In the poem, the Duke is decribing a painting of his late wife to a visitor. His late wife, Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, was a flirtatious girl of 16 when they were married. The Duke then goes on to decribed how he had her killed (history speculates that she was poisned) to the visitor, who turns out to be the man arraging his next marriage to another teen girl.

Don't you just love the irony?

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