 Studying my last Duchess, here's how you can analyse this poem. In terms of structure, this poem is written as one stanza, it is a dramatic monologue. The sub-hitting here contextually refers to Duke Alfonso II of Ferrara, Italy, whose wife died under mysterious circumstances. In line 2, the Duchess is looking as if she were alive. This simile foreshadows the fact that he kills his Duchess. The repetition of the painter's name shows how arrogant the Duke is. He is name-dropping. The parenthesis in line 9 and 10 shows how much the Duke enjoys having power over who sees his Duchess. We can see here that the Duke was really jealous that other men made the Duchess smile. The rhetorical question here shows he's building up the case as to why he had to kill her. This exclamatory sentence shows he was fed up with her behaviour. He refers to this heritage here and the enjambement illustrates how arrogant he is. The alliteration in Sibilan's hair is used to show he is justifying killing her. His reference to Neptune here is a symbol of how he tamed the Duchess.