Introduction
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” is an 1839 poem written by Robert Browning. The main subject of the poem is a Spanish monk living in a cloister who exhibits resentment against a fellow monk living in the same quarters.
Browning uses the Spanish monk to weave a stupendous web of hypocrisy and deceit. The monk expresses a variety of opinions that he shares together with those of the other monk. However, a close examination of the poem reveals that the monk’s assertions are not genuine. This monk tries to convince the audience or the reader of the poem is he is a moral and just man by talking about the unique little things he does to portray his faith. For example, he talks about his “goodness” which he displays by placing his knife and fork crosswise when he is done eating to show that his remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. This is depicted from the thirty -third to the thirty-sixth line of the poem where the poet states, “When he finishes reflection, knife and fork he never lays, cross-wise, to my recollection, as I do, in Jesus praise”.
The monk, on the other hand resents his fellow monk, named Brother Lawrence. He not only wishes that his fellow monk would go to hell, but also tries to make the life of Brother Lawrence a living hell in itself. Mocking him is simply not enough, the personal goes ahead to physically ruin his life, for example, by destroying his garden. This is depicted in lines 47 and 48 of the poem where he states that “And I, too, at such trouble, / keep them [the flowers] close-nipped at the sly!
However, the major element of the poem is irony. The irony is presented in the fact that the monk who is typically supposed to harbor nothing in his soul but pure feelings and thoughts resents his fellow monk. However, as mentioned earlier, this resentment is not genuine and is just fabricated. The monk is just jealous and tends to find pleasure in the flesh rather than in the soul as monks are supposed to. The monk attempts to exhibit himself as a model of righteousness. He condemns his fellow monk, Brother Lawrence for his supposed immorality. However, the reader is later able to realize that those faults that the monks claim belong to Brother Lawrence are indeed his own.
The poem’s content clearly gives it a paradoxical mood. The poem has 9 stanzas each containing 8 trimetric lines. The poem exhibits the conventional and traditional ABABCDCD rhyme scheme for the most part. However, there are little variations of this scheme within the poem, maybe to show the reader that there is something wrong with the poem, and thus, the persona or the speaker.
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” is a depiction of Browning’s brilliant poetry skills, which are evident throughout the entire poem. His word-play is simply genius. He also makes use of poetic appropriate words that help to maintain the rhythm of the poem. The theme of religion is brilliantly incorporated into the poem.
Some elements of poetry that are incorporated into the poem include assonance (line 15, the vowel “o”, line 21, the vowel “i”, and line 45, vowel “o”), alliteration (line15, 16, 17, 51) and repetition (lines, 15, 16 and 64). Another poetic element utilized by Browning in the poem is onomatopoeia, which is depicted in both the first and the last lines of the poem by “Gr-r-r”.
In conclusion, “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” is a brilliant poem that not only exhibits the sturdy poetic skills of the author, but that also presents a strong message of hypocrisy and paradox.
