Spanish Cloister

Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
• Setting o Tetrameter (with irregularities) o Non-verbal sounds – “Gr-r-r” – conventions of spoken language (symmetry with the end – nothing is resolved) o Colloquial/filial language – “Hell dry you up with its flames!” o Rhythm retained throughout poem – speaker’s self-righteousness and careful adherence to tradition and formal convention o Similarities to dramatic monologue – interest in sketching out a character, attention to aestheticizing detail, implied commentary on morality o Tone – ironic, sarcastic, critical, bitter
• Breaking of social expectations and hypocrisy o Antithesis of a monk (caring, peaceful, patient) – disturbing (violence) o Righteousness vs self-righteousness and corruption
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He finds his pleasures more in the flesh than in the spirit (suggestive towards sexual immorality) o Accusing Brother Lawrence of lechery/gluttony – “Saint, forsooth!” – when he is guilty of these sins – “Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs” – detail (clearly he has been looking for himself) o Corruption – “My scrofulous French novel” o Inclusion of Latin (formal) – “Salve tibi”, “Pena gratia” – contrasts with conversational tone, contractions – “Bright as ‘twere...”
• Monk’s rage o Colloquial language – “Hell dry you up with its flames!” o Non-verbal sounds – “Gr-r-r” – conventions of spoken language (symmetry with the end – nothing is resolved) o Impatience – “What?
Your myrtle-bush wants trimming? Oh, that rose has prior claims –” – catalexis (missing syllable) o Fantasies about trapping Lawrence into damnation – suggests that L is a good man (will receive salvation) – the most vehement moralists invent their own opposition to elevate themselves
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Religious o Opposes second commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" o Dramatic irony – narrator uses religious allegories to prove his ‘blamelessness’ – “Knife and fork he never lays/Cross-wise… As I do, In Jesu’s praise” – to audience, emphasises hypocrisy o Bargain with Satan – paradox – making bargain with devil = loss of one’s soul (moral sin) “Spin him round and send him flying/Off to hell…”
• Audience o Moral hypocrisy o Righteousness vs self-righteousness and corruption o Character represents moralists and preacher of Browning’s day (no one can admire his moral dissolution) – people’s hypocrisy and essential immorality