The Laboratory Revenge Quotes

We get into the nitty-gritty of this poem right away. We're not even into the second stanza of the poem, and already we're hearing about poison and murder. We don't know yet that there's a revenge plot, but that's what Browning is setting us up for. He wants us to know that there's dirty work afoot. He uses this fourth line like a hook to pull us into the poem and get us thinking about why the speaker would want to kill someone.

We think there's a devilish little twist at the end of the eighth line. Our speaker is about to turn the tables on her cheating man and his girlfriend. She thinks that they think that she ran away to cry and pray. Instead, she's plotting revenge. When she says "for them!—I am here," she means that she plans to wipe the girl out and make the guy wish he had never laid eyes on her. She's taking control with this plot, refusing to get walked all over, and she declares it out loud. Revenge is her way of taking the wheel. Drat, we keep finding ourselves kind of liking this murderous gal!

We think this line is really key. It's not just the revenge that's the goal. It's the delicious plot itself, the slow way it unfurls. Our speaker doesn't just want this other woman dead, she wants to be able to watch it happen. Again, we think this revenge thing is partly just about being in control. She's had something taken away from her, and now she wants to be the one who can take something away, who has a deadly secret of her own. She wants to watch the happy couple enjoy themselves, not knowing the terrible things that are about to go down.

For a moment, our speaker fantasized that she could kill this other woman just by looking at her, by channeling all of her hatred into her gaze. (This lady obviously has a really vivid imagination.) It didn't work (big shock), so now she's stepped up her game. She's turning to poison because she thinks that will finally accomplish her goal for certain ("this does it all").

This line ties into the same feelings she was expressing in lines 27-28. The speaker doesn't just want revenge (although she definitely wants that, and in the worst way). She also wants her revenge to hurt ("let death be felt"). Beyond that, she wants everybody to see the evidence ("proof") of her terrible revenge. She wants them to know that her boyfriend and his new lady messed with the wrong person. This plot, when it's done, will be the proof of how deadly, cunning, and powerful she really is. Mwahahahaha.