Summary

The poem begins by introducing the portrait of the "last Duchess" (1). The speaker indicates that she looks just like she did in life and praises the work of the artist, "Fra Pandolf" (3). He asks his listener to look at the portrait and indicates the fact that the duchess in the painting is blushing. However, he states, it was "not her husband's presence only" that made her blush (13-14).

Instead, the duchess was delighted by a wide range of experiences. Her expression of delight in the painting is attributed to Fra Pandolf's "courtesy" (19). When the painter Pandolf praised aspects of her physical beauty, she reacted strongly to his statements. Her husband reflects that she had "a heart...too soon made glad" (21). She enjoyed many things equally: a bowl of cherries, a ride on her horse, a beautiful sunset, all equivalent to her husband's favor. She...