Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
A monk bitterly resents Brother Lawrence's gardening, conversation, possessions, and religious habits. He admits secretly nipping Lawrence's plants and imagines ways to damn him through scripture or a lurid French novel. After considering a pact with Satan to ruin a prized rose-acacia, he turns to the Vespers prayer while still insulting Lawrence.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Dramatic Monologue, Satirical Poetry · 741 words
First lines
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?
What this Textopian page supports
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Dramatic Monologue, Satirical Poetry
- Length: 741 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Dramatic Monologue — A single cloistered speaker reveals his hatred of Brother Lawrence through complaints, admissions of sabotage, and imagined schemes.
- Satirical Poetry — The speaker boasts of devotional gestures while damaging plants and plotting another monk's damnation, exposing the contradiction through rhymed verse.
Tags
monastic life · religious hypocrisy · hatred · sabotage · damnation · dramatic monologue