My Last Dutchess by Robert Browning

The rhythm of "My Last Duchess" is that of an Iambic pentameter with a dramatic monologue. The writer is expressing the inner thoughts of the individual speaker, who is believed to be Alfonso II the Duke of Ferrara ( a city in northeast Italy). It was believed that the Duke murdered his wife the Duchess, but he was never found guilty. The poem is about a painting of the Duchess as she sits smiling.
As the Duke speaks to the messenger about the painting, he reveals some hints that he himself may have been the murderer, but it appears he doesn't want this to be known. He comes accross as very jealous (line 31) "she thanked men-good, but thanked them somehow, I know not how, as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred year old name with anybody's gift". This implies he was not happy with the way she didn't honor him for the great man he was. He portrays himself in a favorable light to make himself look good, as if he's feeling guilty about something. His jealousy of her smiles to other men seems to grow (line 45) when he says she smiled at him, but then again she smiled at everyone that way. He was nothing special. He won't come out and say he murdered her, but in line 45 he writes "I gave commands;then all smiles stopped together". Now he owns the painting, or so it seems, and he covers it with a curtain, and only reveals the smile when he wants to (line 9-10); he has complete control over the smile, finally. At the end of the poem, the Duke prepares to meet his next wife's family downstairs from where the paining sits. He comments on the dowry he is perhaps about to receive, and the reader gets a chill when thinking of the life of his next wife, and hopes the truth can be revealed before she ends up another painting on the wall.

Blake's "two contrary states of the human soul"

Blake's Songs of Innocense and Songs of Experience seem to reflect on the one hand a child of optimism, and on the other a child who is broken and discouraged. Abandoned as a child he continued to dream of being set free, of being cleansed and full of God's love and joy. He felt that if he was a good boy and did his work he'd get God's approval, love and protection. This was what he felt would keep him happy.
Five years later, while his adopted parents go to church without him, he's left alone again. Dirty and still optimistic on the outside as evidenced by his statement "I am happy, and dance and sing", yet on the inside he now has a negative view of the church. He feels discouraged by the faith, or at least those who were suppose to show evidence of their Godly love and affection. They are hippocrits in his view. They go to church, but they sing of sadness and "woe", and they expect the same of him. It seems he feels God has all but abandoned him, and he's destined to live a life of misery. He's now good at hiding his pain, and he mocks the religion altogether. He's done what so many of us do, put our faith in Man, not God.