Though I found the poem, "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning somewhat confusing, after reading it a few times, I started to hear a formal, yet seemingly frustrated(?) voice from the narrator. The use of syntax such as "chanced to say" (line 16) and "The curtain I have drawn for you, but I" (line 10) put me back in the time when the poem was written, in 1842, and for me added a formal voice. I also sensed a sort of frustration in the narrator, I think because he uses various punctuation, such as the question mark between dashes in, "-how shall I say?-" (line 22), the exclamation mark in, "Sir, 'twas all one!" (line 25) and the use of commas and question mark in, "Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,/ Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without/ Much the same smile? (lines 43-45).
The narrator has a voice that portrays a layered personality, in my opinion.
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