When one thinks about appealing to readers' senses, one
probably first thinks of imagery, since imagery, by definition, appeals to the senses.
In Browning's "My Last Duchess," the speaker uses imagery to describe his former wife's
portrait, as well as her looks and voice when she was
alive.
According to the Duke, people have asked him what
brought about the "glance" (visual imagery) seen on the wife's face in the portrait.
And the glance is also referred to as a "spot of joy" (visual). In life, she used
"approving speech" (auditory imagery), and at times she would "blush"
(visual).
Imagery is also used to describe what gained his
wife's approval and made her blush: "My favor at her breast," "The dropping of the
daylight in the West," "bough of cherries," "the white mule/She rode with round the
terrace."
The speaker is a hideous, arrogant, overly-proud
human being, but, through imagery, he creates a beautiful vision of the wife he ordered
killed, as well as that which caused her beauty to be heightened in her facial
expressions and tender voice and words.
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