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My Last Duchess<br>Robert Browning<br><br>That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, <br>Looking as if she were alive. I call <br>That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands <br>Worked busily a day, and there she stands. <br>Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said <br>“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read <br>Strangers like you that pictured countenance, <br>The depth and passion of its earnest glance, <br>But to myself they turned (since none puts by <br>The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) <br>And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, <br>How such a glance came there; so, not the first <br>Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not <br>Her husband’s presence only, called that spot <br>Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps <br>Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps <br>Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint <br>Must never hope to reproduce the faint <br>Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff <br>Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough ...