Robert Browning
British · 19th century
Victorian English poet celebrated as the foremost practitioner of the dramatic monologue form, author of My Last Duchess, Porphyria's Lover, and Andrea del Sarto.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry identifies the dramatic monologue, Browning's signature form, as the structural framework for 'cowboy like me' and potentially other Taylor songs featuring a single narrator revealing character through speech.
Notable Works
- My Last Duchess, Porphyria's Lover, Andrea del Sarto, The Ring and the Book
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
My Last Duchess
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify 'cowboy like me' as a dramatic monologue, a form Uncle Jerry attributes most famously to Robert Browning. He names My Last Duchess as 'probably the most famous' dramatic monologue and draws a direct structural parallel: both feature a single narrator speaking to another person who does not speak, revealing character through what they say, and leaving the reader to work out the full situation like a detective story. Uncle Jerry says the song is 'a classic dramatic monologue.'
Porphyria's Lover
Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the situation in ivy, a lover who wants what belongs to another, a husband who wants what's only the wife's, reminds them of Robert Browning's 'Porphyria's Lover.' The connection is mentioned briefly as a thematic parallel rather than a direct allusion.
Porphyria's Lover
Angela & Uncle Jerry name Porphyria's Lover as another Browning dramatic monologue in the same discussion of 'cowboy like me' as a dramatic monologue. It is mentioned as part of the catalogue of Browning's work in this form but not discussed in detail.