elming love he has for Porphyria. He sits quietly in the cottage listening to the rain while he waits his lover's arrival. The unnamed speaker conveys Porphyria's enchanting and sensuous beauty. The speaker secretly watches Porphyria remove her wet clothing and places the wet garments near the warm fire to dry out. He notices her long yellow hair fall over her shoulders. She calls to her lover and receives no response. She then wraps her lover's arm around her waist. She exposes her smooth white shoulder covered by her tangled hair. Porphyria softly tells the speaker of the deep love she has for him. However, the speaker is aware of her passionate attempt to conceal her pride and vanity. Her beauty, pride, and conceit prevent Porphyria from completely loving the speaker. The unnamed speaker realizes that Porphyria cannot make a true commitment to a serious relationship of love. He is overcome by his passion and desire to be her only lover. As the couple embraces one another, the speaker is unable to restrain overwhelming desire to make Porphyria his only lover. He has terrible thoughts about how he could make her devoted only to him. He suddenly realizes what he must do to gain her total devotion and love. Debating what action he should take, the speaker gazes into her eyes and believes that Porphyria loves only him. In an instant, she belonged only to him. She was totaling devoted to the speaker. At that particular moment, her love was perfect, pure, and good. Suddenly, the speaker understands what he must do in order to gain Porphyria's faithful love. He takes her long yellow hair and repeatedly wraps it around her little throat. He strangles Porphyria until she dies. The speaker states that she felt no pain. He is certain that her death was painless. He opens her eyelids and again sees the laughter reflected in her blue eyes. As he loosened her hair from around her neck, Porphyria's cheek brightly blushes as he ...
