Summary The poem starts out with a woman talking to someone about a "glass mask," white smoke, devils,

and poison. Adding that up with the title, we can tell that we're in some kind of evil laboratory. She goes on to tell a story about her lover, who left her for another woman, and how she's sure they're both making fun of her right now. Then she starts describing what the man she's talking to (the poison maker) is doing. She encourages him, asks him questions, and dreams about all the people she could kill with the poisons she sees around her. She describes one fantasy in particularly disturbing detail, imagining how she would kill three women she knows. Suddenly, she breaks off and starts complaining about the poison the man is making for her. She's not happy with the color, and she thinks it won't be enough to kill her enemy. Then she gets going on her gruesome fantasies again, thinking about how painful and miserable she would like this poor woman's death to be. Finally, she notices that the poison is done, and offers the old man who made it all of her gold and jewels (as well as a kiss on the mouth) as a reward for making it. Now that I, tying thy glass mask tightly, May gaze thro' these faint smokes curling whitely, As thou pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy Which is the poison to poison her, prithee? Straight into the action but does not reveal the situation, only that it's someone else's mask - mysterious. The first person "I" reveals the speaker. We are then given a reason "faint smokes" - pathetic fallacy again. Deliberately old-fashioned language - set in the past, "devil's smithy" is a metaphor suggest a crime is taking place Reveals to the audience the reasons for being there - alliteration Blunt statement - reveals emotion without description. "They know" provokes sympathy. Rhythm and meter builds tension here. The repetitive pronouns seem deliberately confusing Repetition of "laugh" sounds mocking and angry, "I am here." We think there's something really confident and final about the way those words stand out. Onomatopoeic words implies enjoyment in the action. Imperative commands to the apothecary suggests difference in social levels Alliterative "p"creates a staccato, unstable sound - contradicts the reassurance that she is "not in haste" Important reveal of "the Kings" - either proving her royal connections and justifying her actions Commenting on the poison - questions make her intentions deliberate, possibly even nervous. She compliments the poison tree by calling it "brave." (In this case that means something like "great" or "excellent.") She oculd also be referring to herself as the 'brave tree' She calls the blue potion "soft " and "exquisite," which gives this whole laboratory scene a kind of strange beauty. Contrasting the deathly themes Her questions implies her instability. Dramatic vocabulary implying instability: "wild" etc Referring to poison as "treasures" suggests riches Implies that she wants power, "casket " also has coffin implications Listing the items a lady would have - ordinary items, also items the signify power and status for a lady Two women are mentioned now, we are unsure of who they are, whether they are the other woman or not. Pastile = incense Listing of body parts sounds more gruesome and visceral. Implies jealousy

He is with her, and they know that I know Where they are, what they do: they believe my tears flow While they laugh, laugh at me, at me fled to the drear Empty church, to pray God in, for them!I am here.

Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste, Pound at thy powder,I am not in haste! Better sit thus and observe thy strange things, Than go where men wait me and dance at the King's.

That in the mortaryou call it a gum? Ah, the brave tree whence such gold oozings come! And yonder soft phial, the exquisite blue, Sure to taste sweetly,is that poison too?

Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures, What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures! To carry pure death in an earring, a casket, A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket! Soon, at the King's, a mere lozenge to give And Pauline should have just thirty minutes to live! But to light a pastile, and Elise, with her head And her breast and her arms and her hands, should drop dead! Quickis it finished? The colour's too grim! Why not soft like the phial's, enticing and dim? Let it brighten her drink, let her turn it and stir, And try it and taste, ere she fix and prefer!

What a drop! She's not little, no minion like me That's why she ensnared him: this never will free The soul from those masculine eyes,say, "no!" To that pulse's magnificent come-and-go.

For only last night, as they whispered, I brought My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought Could I keep them one half minute fixed, she would fall, Shrivelled; she fell not; yet this does it all! Not that I bid you spare her the pain! Let death be felt and the proof remain;

Return to present tense with criticism of the colour - irony of wanting "pure death" to look good 'Enticing' suggests her feelings towards the power She imagines her victim enjoying the drink, unaware of the consequences - jealous feelings are almost appealing. We are also unaware of who "she" is now Black humour here is that she is worried about there not being enough poison as this new woman is bigger than her. Not only is the new girl heavy, but our speaker thinks she looks like a man too, with "masculine eyes." - SHe is trying to justify her actions here. Onomatopoeic "come-and-go" - makes the dirty work of making poisons sound more appealing. Change of scene again - instability She remembers staring at the woman - back to empathy as we are given reasons to understand her actions Hyperbolic language - hating language is dramatic She wants her to die painfully and with visual proof of her death- She seems to be enjoying the opportunity to spoil this lady's looks.

Brand, burn up, bite into its grace He is sure to remember her dying face Is it done? Take my mask off! Nay, be not morose; It kills her, and this prevents seeing it close: The delicate droplet, my whole fortune's fee If it hurts her, beside, can it ever hurt me? Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill, You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will! But brush this dust off me, lest horror it brings Ere I know itnext moment I dance at the King's!

Alliterative 'b' sounds are bitter and angry She is now back to speaking to the apothecary, reassuring him but also revealing her excitement - she wants to see the poison Alliteration of "delicate droplet" and "fortune's fee" makes a staccato sound Speaker reassures herself that she cannot be hurt by this - she feels no remorse for her actions Offering him money and a kiss (the 'old man' suggests her instability) She is bringing herself down to his level by doing this also She is also seeking to reclaim her 'innocence' by brushing the dust away We are then reminded of where she is going with the poison

Key Notes Glass Mask Line 1: A glass mask is definitely not a warm image. Coming right at the beginning the way it does, it helps contribute to the atmosphere of coldness, danger, and isolation that runs through the poem. You'd only need a glass mask if you were working with something dangerous. Browning wants to feel how far away we are from the world of light and happiness and love. Line 41: Near the end of the poem, she takes off the mask. Her work here is done, and she can finally take off the mask and leave the hellish laboratory. This last bit about the mask also helps us see how reckless and obsessed she is. If the mask is a symbol of her dirty poisonous schemes, it also represents safety, caution, and protection. She's willing to toss all that out the window in order to accomplish her goal. Poison There is a ton of talk about poison in "The Laboratory." It's the thing that drives the whole poem's plot. It's why the speaker is in the lab. It's what she's going to use to achieve her ugly desires, and it's the old man's job to make it for her. Even though the speaker only uses the actual word in two lines, poison and the things you can do with it are never far from her mind. And that leads us to consider her own poisoned state. She's so consumed by revenge, it's like her spirit has been contaminated the way a poison might attack a body. Line 4: The first time we hear about poison, she says it twice, just so you don't miss it. Notice how Browning drops it in at the end of the first line, too, just to give you a little jolt. Line 16: Our speaker is looking around the lab, asking questions about the things she sees. One blue bottle in particular catches her eye, and she asks if that's poison, too. She's definitely got poison on the brain. We also want you to notice that cool thing he does by placing the words "sweetly" and "poison" together. Usually you don't think of poison as being sweet, but that's kind of how our speaker seemssweet and poisonous at the same time. The Kings Line 12: The first time she brings up the King's, she mentions men and dancing. The association of those words tells us a lot about our speaker. For her, the court is all about pleasure and having men pay attention to her (or "wait me" as she puts it). She's a really vain lady, and the court's a good place for pretty, self-absorbed folks to hang out (kind of like those fancy dance clubs that we don't ever go to). Line 21: Now she starts to mix the world of the lab and the world of "the King's" together. She imagines carrying a poison "lozenge" into the court to give to one of the women there. For our speaker, poison is a way of getting power over others, so she loves to think about the advantage it would give her over the other women at court. Let's just say she's a little on the competitive side. Line 48: Then, just like that, she's off again, back to the beautiful world of the royal palace. Now, though, that glittering symbol of wealth and pleasure seems a little dirtier, a bit tainted by all of the plans we've heard about. We know now that bad things happen at court, just like they do in the laboratory. There's no place and nobody that's totally good in this poem. Sad. Phial Line 15: The mysterious way that Browning introduces the phial really draws your attention to it. There's maybe a little moment of confusion as we try to figure out what the speaker means by calling it "soft." Then we realize she must be talking about its "exquisite blue" color. We think there's something almost magical about the description that fits really well with the atmosphere of grimy grinding and bubbling brewing. Line 26: That same phial pulls our attention back one more time. When this (sort of picky) lady decides she doesn't like the color of the poison the old man makes her, she tells him she wants it to be more like whatever is in the phial. This time, she calls it "enticing and dim." It's like the speaker wants her victims to be as enchanted by the poison in the phial as she so obviously is. See, this is what's so great about this poem. At first we might think this phial is just kind of a throwaway image, but by describing it in so many ways, Browning manages to make it rich and strange and enchanting. Eyes Line 31: Here the speaker talks about her rival's "masculine eyes." That might just be another way of putting her down, like when she calls her fat in line 29. But those eyes are also what she thinks "ensnared" her boyfriend. There's a lot of pretty subtle stuff in this poem about female and male power. A man can kill with a sword, but a woman needs poison. And a woman has to use magic and sneaky tricks to win a man's affection. Or at least that's what our speaker thinks. Line 34: Ever heard the expression "if looks could kill"? Well that's what this lady is trying to do. She hates her rival so much that she wishes she could kill her just by staring at her. And for a moment, she feels like it's working. Unfortunately for her, it's pretty tough to kill someone by looking at them, so she has to go with a more traditional method: poison.