Soliloquy of spanish cloister. Robert Browning 2022-11-16
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The "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is a poem written by Robert Browning in 1842. It is a dramatic monologue, a literary form in which a character speaks to themselves or to a silent audience, revealing their inner thoughts and feelings.
In this particular soliloquy, the speaker is a Spanish monk who is speaking to himself in his cloister, or private chapel. The monk is bitter and resentful, and his soliloquy is filled with jealousy, anger, and a sense of superiority over his fellow monks.
The monk is jealous of Brother Lawrence, a fellow monk who is known for his humility and kindness. The speaker despises Brother Lawrence for his lack of intelligence and his lack of ambition, and he revels in the fact that he is superior to him in every way.
Despite his negative feelings towards Brother Lawrence, the monk is also deeply insecure. He is constantly seeking validation and recognition from his superiors, and he is obsessed with the idea of being the best monk in the monastery.
In the end, the soliloquy reveals the monk to be a deeply flawed and unhappy individual, consumed by jealousy, anger, and a desire for superiority. Through his soliloquy, Browning has created a vivid and complex character, one who is both repugnant and pitiable, and whose inner thoughts and feelings are laid bare for all to see.
Robert Browningâs Poetry âSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloisterâ Summary & Analysis
Buy Study Guide Summary The poem "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is written in nine stanzas and is narrated by an unnamed Spanish monk who watches in hatred and envy as The first stanza opens with the speaker's intense hatred of Brother Lawrence, who the speaker insists would perish "if hate killed men. Should a monk be reading pronography? I the In VI. First, while this poem is grouped as one of Browning's dramatic monologues, it is not technically a monologue but instead a soliloquy, a speech where the speaker shares his inner thoughts. Simply glance at it, you grovel Hand and foot in Belial's gripe: If I double down its pages At the woeful sixteenth print, When he gathers his greengages, Ope a sieve and slip it in't? In the fourth stanza, the speaker thinks about how Brother Lawrence is coveting two women who sit nearby talking. Oh, that rose has prior claims â Needs its leaden vase filled brimming? If hate God's blood, What? There's a Once you trip on it, entails Twenty-nine One sure, if If I trip him just a-dying, Sure of Spin him Off to hell, a Manichee? He died the same day his Asolando was published.
II At the meal we sit together; Salve tibi! Water your damned flowerpots, do! The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. In the fourth stanza, the speaker angers himself over Brother Lawrence's lust for the two nearby women, but the truth is that it is only the speaker who notices the girls. None double Not one fruit-sort can you spy? Not one fruit-sort can you spy? Oh, that rose has prior claimsâ Needs its leaden vase filled brimming? VIII Or, my scrofulous French novel On grey paper with blunt type! Hell dry you up with its flames! How go on your flowers? The irony, of course, is that the novel is his â he has already corrupted his owl soul, and now seeks to corrupt another. One goes to the Abbot's table, All of us get each a slice. At the meal we sit together; Salve tibi! Not one fruit-sort can you spy? Implicitly, it reveals the thin line between religious piety and hellish damnation. With a fire-new spoon we're furnished, And a goblet for ourself, Rinsed like something sacrificial Ere 'tis fit to touch our chapsâ Marked with L.
A Short Analysis of Robert Browningâs âSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloisterâ
This confirms that the lechery he had earlier imputed to Brother Lawrence is, in fact, his own: it was him ogling at those nuns. The speaker is so convinced of his own piety that he considers damnation an appropriate punishment for he who fails in it. Gr-r- r â you swine! In the fifth stanza, he accuses Brother Lawrence of failing to show proper piety through ridiculous gestures like crossing his fork and knife in the shape of a cross or drinking in three gulps to imitate the Trinity. Taking God's name in vain wishing to kill someone by force of hatred rather than turning the other cheek are both unchristian. If he's able We're to have a feast! The reader must delight in this at-times humorous portrait of the monk, all the while disapproving of his attitude, but all the same enjoy his shocking exuberance, his demonic intensity, his zest for earthly pleasure. I the Trinity illustrate, Drinking watered orange pulp â In three sips the Arian frustrate; While he drains his at one gulp! Perhaps most importantly, the speaker describes a bargain he would make with Satan to hurt Lawrence. While brown Dolores 26Squats outside the Convent bank 27With Sanchicha, telling stories, 28Steeping tresses in the tank, 29Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs, 30âCan't I see his dead eye glow, 31Bright as 'twere a Barbary corsair's? In the seventh stanza, the speaker moves to darker territory as he realizes that a "text in Galatians" explains how a sinner will sin progressively more and be damned for it.
Robert Browning: Poems âSoliloquy of the Spanish Cloisterâ Summary and Analysis
We'll have our platter burnished, 18Laid with care on our own shelf! That is, if he'd let it show! As with most of Browning's characters, what comes across most of all is the human complications of psychology, whereas institutions like religion are thin disguises of these more ordinary emotions. That is, if he'd let it show! In the second stanza, he mocks Brother Lawrence's dinner-time comments, in the third stanza he takes on Lawrence's voice to suggest his love of material objects, and in the sixth he imagines a conversation with him. One goes to the Abbot's table, All of us get each a slice. The basic premise of the poem is suffused with dramatic irony. There his lily snaps! Thus Browning implies that the most vehement moralists invent their own opposition in order to elevate themselves.
Soliloquy Of The Spanish Cloister by Robert Browning
The speaker concocts a plan to "trip him" into sin right before he dies, so that Brother Lawrence will then be sent to hell. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. I the Trinity illustrate, Drinking watered orange pulpâ In three sips the Arian frustrate; While he drains his at one gulp. How go on your flowers? There his lily snaps! At the meal we sit together: Salve tibi! Because both operate in extreme realms, it is easy to make the jump. This poem gives the sour-natured attitude of mind of a monk jealous of a brother, whom he hates merely because of his genial nature and goodness. While brown Dolores Squats outside the Convent bank With Sanchicha, telling stories, Steeping tresses in the tank, Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs, âCan't I see his dead eye glow, Bright as 'twere a Barbary corsair's? As you read line by line through the poem, look closely at what the narrator is saying, taking into account that the narrator is a monk. Robert Browning's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is a darkly funny story of hatred, hypocrisy, and self-deception.
This gives the rhythm of the poem a forceful, direct feel, to echo the headlong anger of the monk who speaks. Opening on a famous Dramatic Lyrics 1842 , one volume of his important eight-book collection Bells and Pomegranates. But as readers soon realize, all the sins the speaker decries in his rival are really his own; unable to face his own weakness, the speaker angrily projects it all onto the nearest guy to hand. We'll have our platter burnished, Laid with care on our own shelf! The narrator's character is revealed throughout the poem by his attitude towards Brother Lawrence. Again, why should a monk want someone to suffer in Hell merely for tending a garden? Certainly, Browning does not mean to suggest that all priests are as deeply hypocritical as this speaker, or that we are all so wicked, but he does suggest through this masterful sketch how adept any individual can be at justifying his own subjective truth, and how the complications of our psychology often work against us by allowing us such license to rationalize our otherwise-ungrounded feelings and actions. Academy of American Poets, n. With a fire-new spoon we're furnished, And a goblet for ourself, Rinsed like something sacrificial Ere 'tis fit to touch our chapsâ Marked with L.
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister Poem Summary and Analysis
Not one fruit-sort can you spy? The poem is also a masterful use of voice, which helps the dramatic irony land so strongly. The second is the date of publication online or last modification online. The speaker of the poem, a monk who is speaking to us from the cloister or corridor of a Spanish monastery, launches into a tirade against one of his fellow monks at the monastery, Brother Lawrence. Besides, having your own goblet is simply the sign of a civilised person, in our view, especially in an age before Fairy washing-up liquid. However, by now we get the impression that the fault lies with the speaker more than it does with Brother Lawrence himself. With a fire-new And a Rinsed like Ere 'tis fit to Marked with L. The poem's speaker, a monk in a Spanish monastery, fumes as he watches his fellow monk Brother Lawrence tending the garden.
How does Browning reveal the narrator's character in Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister?
The form allows the monk to take on many voices in the same way Browning is crafting his voice. Cite this page as follows: "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister - Themes and Meanings" Critical Guide to Poetry for Students Ed. Form The poem comprises nine eight-line stanzas, each rhyming ABABCDCD. On the surface, the poem may seem to be a light historical piece, the utterings of a grumpy but interesting monkâhowever, it repeatedly approaches a tone similar to that used by the more strident of Victorian essayists and religious figures. Consider the examples: the second stanza accuses Lawrence of pride in his conversation, whereas the speaker is himself proud enough to want another man dead and damned for some transgression.
See eNotes Ad-Free Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. The second date is today's date â the date you are citing the material. The final stanza has the speaker considering even selling his own soul to Satan for the pleasure of thereby damning Brother Lawrence. He dropped out of the University of London and struggled with his first publications. When he finishes refection, Knife and fork he never lays Cross-wise, to my recollection, As do I, in Jesu's praise.
