What do we know about this poem What does the title tell us First Reading In whose voice is this written What is the poem about What kind of character is the persona of the poem Vocabulary check ID: 240474
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Slide1
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
What do we know about this poem?What does the title tell us? Slide2
First Reading:
In whose voice is this written?
What is the poem about?What kind of character is the persona of the poem?
Vocabulary check:
find three words you don’t understand/know and use the dictionary to find out what they meanSlide3
C – Context
“swine’s snout” = c19th term. No other indication of context time-wise.
What was going on in society that might have relevance? Link to: religion and church
Cf. The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxted’s ChurchSlide4
L - Language
You have been given two stanzas to study in your group. Use the questions to help you pick out and comment on Browning’s use of language.
Be prepared to share your ideas with the class as you will become ‘the expert’ on your stanzas for a second group.Slide5
Gr
-r-r--there go, my heart's abhorrence!
Water your damned flower-pots, do!
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!Slide6
At the meal we sit together;
Salve tibi!
I must hearWise 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"?Slide7
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!)Slide8
Saint,
forsooth! While Brown Dolores Squats outside the Convent bankWith 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!)Slide9
When he finishes refection,
Knife and fork he never laysCross-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!Slide10
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!Slide11
There's a great text in Galatians,
Once you trip on it, entailsTwenty-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
?Slide12
Or, my scrofulous French novel
On grey paper with blunt type!Simply glance at it, you grovelHand and foot in Belial's gripe;
If I double down its pagesAt the woeful sixteenth print,
When he gathers his greengages,Ope a sieve and slip it
in't
?Slide13
Or, there's Satan!--one might venture
Pledge one's soul to him, yet leaveSuch a flaw in the indenture
As he'd miss till, past retrieve,Blasted lay that
rose-acaciaWe're so proud of!
Hy
,
Zy
, Hine...
'St, there's Vespers!
Plena
gratia
Ave, Virgo!
Gr
-r-r--you swine!Slide14
L – Language
The poem uses a lot of exclamation marks. Find some examples. What does this suggest about the speaker?
The poem uses a lot of question marks. Find some examples. How are they used? (i.e. is the speaker asking genuine questions?) What does this suggest about the speaker?
Find some examples of language which creates a tone of anger, bitterness or jealousy.
What is the effect of having the speaker use both non-verbal sounds and Latin words?
Can you find any examples of sibilance (/s/) or ‘soft’ alliteration in the poem? What is the effect of this? Slide15
I – Imagery
Flowers and Plants
The speaker's rival and nemesis, Brother Lawrence, is an avid gardener, and the poem takes place in the cloister, or the open garden area at the centre of the monastery. The speaker works in his complaints about Brother Lawrence around remarks about his flowers. In poetry,
flowers are generally associated with beauty and innocence, but the speaker wants us to believe that Brother Lawrence is actually a corrupt, hypocritical monk.
How
do the references to flowers help create the impression that it's actually the speaker, who wants to "blast" the "rose-acacia," who is corrupt?
Slide16
Line 2:
The first reference to flowers has the speaker telling someone – we don't yet know whom – to "water [his] damned flower-pots." Why curse the flower-pots? Could this be hyperbole? Watering flowerpots seems like an inoffensive act: what effect does this have on our opinion of the speaker’s rage?
Line 5: Why could "trimming" be seen as a
metaphor for the ideal "monkish" behaviour?Lines 6-7:
Brother Lawrence stops the trimming to refill the vase of a flowerpot. Roses are often associated with sex and beauty, and the speaker notes that Brother Lawrence stops his repressive "trimming" in order to refill a vase of beautiful roses. For what could this be a loose
metaphor
?
Line 16:
"Swine's Snout" is actually a common name for the dandelion, although the speaker is making a
double entendre
, or
pun
, insulting Brother Lawrence by calling him a pig face ("swine"=pig). How does this affect our view of the speaker?
Line 24:
The "lily" referenced here is a
metaphor
for innocence and purity. How do we know the speaker is delighted that the illusion of Brother Lawrence's innocence and purity is "snapped," or broken?
Lines 47-48:
The speaker admits that he sneakily "nips" the buds of Brother Lawrence's flowers. We often use the expression "to nip [something] in the bud,": what could this ‘nipping’ be a
metaphor
for?
Line 63:
The speaker uses
alliteration
in this line with the repetition of the "g" sound ("
g
athers his
g
reen
g
ages"). Greengages are a type of fruit related to the plum. What is the effect of this?
Line 69
: This is a line that many readers and critics have argued about: is the speaker talking about "blast[
ing
]," or killing, a literal "rose-acacia" that Brother Lawrence has planted, or is the "rose-acacia" supposed to stand in
symbolically
for Brother Lawrence himself? (Some critics have even argued that the speaker has become so wrapped up in his angry passion that he loses track of the direction of his sentence partway through, and says "rose-acacia" because it's the first thing he sees. (He's still looking out into the cloister garden, so there are flowers galore). What do you think
?Slide17
F - Form
Dramatic
Monologue:
Experimental, hybrid poetic form that combines elements of drama and the theatre with more traditional, lyric poetry.
Dramatic Lyrics.
The speaker of the poem is never Browning himself. It’s a character he has created. In this case, the speaker is a Spanish monk who seems to be rather psychologically unstable.
Browning was experimental in that he played with different poetic forms and explored the psychology of all kinds of different people, allowing them to reveal their innermost being through their own speech
.
Why is this not, strictly speaking, a dramatic monologue?Slide18
S - Structure
How many stanzas?
How many lines? What rhyme scheme?
Gr
-r-r--there go, my heart's
abhorrence
!
(
A
)
Water your damned flower-pots,
do
!
(
B
)
If hate killed men, Brother
Lawrence
, (
A
)
God's blood, would not mine kill
you
!
(
B
)
What? your myrtle-bush wants
trimming
?
(
C
)
Oh, that rose has prior
claims
—
(
D
)
Needs its leaden vase filled
brimming
?
(
C
)
Hell dry you up with its
flames
!
(
D
)
What is the effect of this? Slide19
S - Structure
The meter of the poem = the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables per line
e.g. iambic pentameter
How many times this happens in one line (how many ‘feet’ per line)
(pentameter = 5 times)
The type of ‘foot’ (specific sequence of syllables) referring to stressed/unstressed sounds
(iambic = an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: i-
AM
)Slide20
S - Structure
The meter of the poem = the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables per line
Trochaic tetrameter
Four feet per line
A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable:
TRO
-
chee
“
What?
Your
myr
-tle
bush
wants
trim
-
ming
?”
[TRO-
chee
TRO-
chee
TRO-
chee
TRO-
chee
]
This sometimes switches to iambic tetrameter:
“
Wa-
ter
your
dam-
ned
flower
-pots
,
do
!
”
[i-AM
i-AM i-AM i-AM]
What is the effect of this?
And sometimes a line lacks a complete foot:
“
Oh
, that
rose
has
pri
-or
claims
”
[TRO-
chee
TRO-
chee
TRO-
chee
TRO-]