"smiling rosy little head..."See in text(Porphyria's Lover)
The description of Porphyria as having a “rosy little head” once again shows the distance between the reality of the story and the speaker’s delusions. To the speaker, her head is “rosy”: a pleasant, flowery image. In reality, her head is flushed from having been recently strangled. The character’s name, Porphyria, fits with this latter image. Porphyria comes from the Greek word for “purple,” the color of her face.
The speaker conjures a romantic image here with the sublimely malevolent storm raging outside his cozy cabin and the effect this storm appears to have on his nerves. The poem begins situated in romantic tropes and imagery that lead the reader to believe the poem will involve romantic themes such as individualism, imagination, and the idealization of love and nature.
