Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

"Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is a soliloquy written by Robert Browning, first published in his collection Dramatic Lyrics (1842). It is written in the voice of an unnamed Spanish monk. The poem consists of nine eight-line stanzas and is written in trochaic tetrameter. The plot of the poem centers around the speaker's hatred for "Brother Lawrence", a fellow monk in the cloister.

The speaker notes the trivial ways in which Brother Lawrence fails in his Christianity, and then plots to murder, or damn the soul of, Brother Lawrence. However, the poem ends before the speaker can finish, when he is interrupted by the bells proclaiming it is time for vespers.

References

• Lecture on the subject—English 262 "A Survey Of British Literature", Columbus State Community College "Global Campus"
• Dessommes, Nancy B. (22 September 1993). "Browning's Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister". The Explicator. 52: 34–36. doi:10.1080/00144940.1993.9938730. Archived from the original on 23 February 2009. Retrieved 12 November 2008.

Further reference bibliography

• Gwara S., Nelson J. (Fall 1997). "Botanical taxonomy and buggery in Browning's 'Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister'". ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. 10 (4): 30–32. doi:10.1080/08957699709600787. ISSN 0895-769X. OCLC 120510060. PMID 11619510. Abstract: Heldref Publications.
• McCusker, Jane A. (Winter 1983). "A Note on the Last Stanza of 'Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister'". Victorian Poetry. 21 (4): 421–424. ISSN 1530-7190. JSTOR 40002109. OCLC 43810477.
• Wear, Richard (Spring 1974). "Further Thoughts on Browning's Spanish Cloister". Victorian Poetry. 12 (1): 67–70. ISSN 1530-7190. JSTOR 40001717. OCLC 43810477.
• Starkman, Miriam K. (May 1960). "The Manichee in the Cloister: A Reading of Browning's 'Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister'". Modern Language Notes. 75 (5): 399–405. doi:10.2307/3039855. JSTOR 3039855.