Friar Lubin by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Friar Lubin is portrayed as skilled at wrongdoing, appropriating others’ goods, and wooing guileless maids, but unable to live virtuously or return what he takes. He preaches sobriety while refusing water; the envoy repeats that he readily does evil but cannot do good.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Satirical Poetry, Humor · 304 words
First lines
By Clement Marot
To gallop off to town post-haste, / So oft, the times I cannot tell; / To do vile deed, nor feel disgraced, -- / Friar Lubin will do it well. / But a sober life to lead, / To honor virtue, and pursue it, / That's a pious, Christian deed, -- / Friar Lubin can not do it.
Genres
- Satirical Poetry — Rhymed stanzas and repeated refrains mock a friar’s aptitude for wrongdoing and inability to practice the virtue he preaches.
- Humor — The contrast between Lubin’s impressive abilities in vice and his helplessness in goodness supplies the recurring joke.
Tags
clerical hypocrisy · theft · seduction · sobriety · satire
What this Textopian page supports
Friar Lubin is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Satirical Poetry, Humor
- Length: 304 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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