Analysis of Soliloquy Of The Spanish Cloister

Robert Browning 1812 (Camberwell) – 1889 (Venice)



Gr-r-r---there go, my heart's abhorrence!
  Water your damned flower-pots, do!
If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,
  God's blood, would not mine kill you!
What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming?
  Oh, that rose has prior claims---
Needs its leaden vase filled brimming?
  Hell dry you up with its flames!

At the meal we sit together:
  _Salve tibi!_ I must hear
Wise talk of the kind of weather,
  Sort of season, time of year:
_Not a plenteous cork-crop: scarcely
  Dare we hope oak-galls, I doubt:
What's the Latin name for ``parsley''?_
  What's the Greek name for Swine's Snout?

Whew! We'll have our platter burnished,
  Laid with care on our own shelf!
With a fire-new spoon we're furnished,
  And a goblet for ourself,
Rinsed like something sacrificial
  Ere 'tis fit to touch our chaps---
Marked with L. for our initial!
  (He-he! There his lily snaps!)

_Saint_, forsooth! While brown Dolores
  Squats outside the Convent bank
With Sanchicha, telling stories,
  Steeping tresses in the tank,
Blue-black, lustrous, thick like horsehairs,
  ---Can't I see his dead eye glow,
Bright as 'twere a Barbary corsair's?
  (That is, if he'd let it show!)

When he finishes refection,
  Knife and fork he never lays
Cross-wise, to my recollection,
  As do I, in Jesu's praise.
I the Trinity illustrate,
  Drinking watered orange-pulp---
In three sips the Arian frustrate;
  While he drains his at one gulp.

Oh, those melons? If he's able
  We're to have a feast! so nice!
One goes to the Abbot's table,
  All of us get each a slice.
How go on your flowers? None double
  Not one fruit-sort can you spy?
Strange!---And I, too, at such trouble,
  Keep them close-nipped on the sly!

There's a great text in Galatians,
  Once you trip on it, entails
Twenty-nine distinct damnations,
  One sure, if another fails:
If I trip him just a-dying,
  Sure of heaven as sure can be,
Spin him round and send him flying
  Off to hell, a Manichee?

Or, my scrofulous French novel
  On grey paper with blunt type!
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?

Or, there's Satan!---one might venture
  Pledge one's soul to him, yet leave
Such a flaw in the indenture
  As he'd miss till, past retrieve,
Blasted lay that rose-acacia
  We're so proud of! _Hy, Zy, Hine ..._
'St, there's Vespers! _Plena grati
  Ave, Virgo!_ Gr-r-r---you swine!


Scheme ABABCDCD EXEXFGFG HIHIJKJK XLXLAMAM NONOPQPQ JRJRJSJS ATATCFCU JVJVXXAF EWEWUXBN
Poetic Form
Metre 1111111010 10111011 11111010 1111111 11101110 1111101 11101110 1111111 10111010 11111 11101110 1110111 1011110 1111111 1010111 1011111 111101010 11111011 101011110 00101001 1110010 11111101 111110010 1111101 1111010 1110101 111010 110001 1110111 1111111 11101001 1111111 111001 1011101 1111010 111011 1010010 1010101 01101001 1111111 11101110 1110111 1110110 1111101 111110110 1111111 10111110 1111101 101101 1111101 101011 1110101 11111010 11101111 11101110 11101 111110 1110111 10111110 101011 11101110 1010011 111011 10101101 11101110 1111111 10100010 1111101 10111010 11111111 11111 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 2,437
Words 430
Sentences 48
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 72
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 201
Words per stanza (avg) 46
Font size:
 

Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 13, 2023

2:15 min read
249

Robert Browning

Robert Browning was the father of poet Robert Browning. more…

All Robert Browning poems | Robert Browning Books

13 fans

Discuss this Robert Browning poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Soliloquy Of The Spanish Cloister" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30409/soliloquy-of-the-spanish-cloister>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    May 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    30
    days
    11
    hours
    46
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    Who wrote the poem "Still I Rise"?
    A Maya Angelou
    B Robert Burns
    C Dylan Thomas
    D Elizabeth Barrett Browning