Porphyria's Lover - teaching resource

Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning – AQA GCSE Love and Relationships Poetry Teaching Resource

This comprehensive two-lesson mini-unit explores Robert Browning’s poem Porphyria’s Lover, featured in the AQA GCSE English Literature Love and Relationships poetry anthology. Designed to support students of all abilities, this resource provides a detailed study of the poem’s context, language, imagery, structure, form, and themes, while developing key analytical and comparative skills.

The teaching pack includes a 30-slide fully editable PowerPoint presentation and eight accompanying worksheets containing a range of differentiated activities with suggested answers for all tasks.

Lesson One:

• Introduction to the Poem: Exploring the poem’s central ideas and first impressions

• Context: Examining Victorian attitudes towards love, sexuality, and gender roles (AO3)

• Dramatic Monologue: Analysing Browning’s narrative form and its impact (AO2)

• Understanding the Plot: Sequencing events and analysing the power dynamics in the relationship (AO1)

• Detailed Annotation: Teacher-led, line-by-line analysis of the poem

• Learning Review: Responding to a statement about Browning’s presentation of the speaker

Lesson Two:

• Language & Techniques: Analysing pathetic fallacy, imagery, poetic devices, rhyme, and caesura

• Structure & Meaning: Investigating how Browning’s structural methods shape interpretation

• Themes: Exploring obsession, control, power, passion, and gender roles

• Assessment Task: Considering Browning’s presentation of each key theme in the poem

Fully editable and easy to adapt, this resource is ideal for classroom teaching, homework, intervention, and revision, helping students prepare confidently for the AQA GCSE English Literature exam.

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