“My Last Duchess” is composed of 28 rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter with no divisions into stanzas. Iambic pentameter refers to the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in a line of verse. Meter is measured in groups of syllables called a “foot,” and the pentameter indicates five feet within a line. The iamb refers to a specific type of foot that sees an alternation between an unstressed syllable then a stressed syllable. Thus, one line of verse in iambic pentameter will carry 10 syllables in total, divided into five feet, each carrying a pair of alternately stressed syllables.

Given below are the first four lines of the poem with each line’s five feet demarcated, and the stressed syllables highlighted in bold:

        That’s my | last Duch- | ess paint- | ed on | the wall

        Looking | as if | she were | alive. | I call

        That piece | a won- | der, now; | Fra Pan- | dolf’s hands

        Worked bu- | sily | a day, | and there | she stands.

The poem is composed entirely of rhyming couplets, sets of two lines, thus the

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now