A Dead Duchess, an extra credit poem, & your Emerson poem for Wednesday

This is a painting of Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, who at the age of fourteen married the fifth Duke of Ferrara. (The duke was 25 at the time). Robert Browning is thought to have based the Duke and Duchess in his poem "My Last Duchess" on the Duke of of Ferrara and his young bride, who died at the age of seventeen under suspicious circumstances (probably of poisoning).

Agnolo Bronzino, Ritratto di Lucrezia de'Medici

Creative Writing extra credit option for one of the today’s poems:

• A dramatic monologue from the perspective of the servant or emissary that the Duke of Ferrara addresses in “My Last Duchess,” describing his interview with the duke. (This could also be in the form of a letter, if you don’t care to write a poem.) 
• A poem or letter to the speaker of “Dover Beach” from the “love” he addresses. How do you think she (or he) might respond to this poem, which is (at least partly) a love poem? Your response could be serious, or it could be humorous.

Due Friday (hard copy only)

And, finally, "Concord Hymn" by Ralph Waldo Emerson