Poetry can often be described as "painting with words." It is the poet's attempt to give linguistic form to thoughts and emotions, to create vivid images with only a minimum of language, achieved through a variety of creative methods. In the lyric poem "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" the poet Robert Browning uses a dramatic monologue to express emotions, such as intense anger and hatred, which are conveyed by the person of an embittered and spiteful monk. By inventing a fictional character, who serves as a speaker in the lyric poem, and expressing that character's hatred in a dramatic situation, Browning created a sense of intense emotion within the poem. An analysis of Browning's "Spanish Cloister Soliloquy" will allow readers to understand how themes, context, form, and mechanics contribute to the impression of violent hatred felt by the speaker. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At first glance it seems that Browning's main purpose in "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" is to present us with the image of a jealous monk who does nothing but complain about a fellow monk named Brother Lawrence. While the mutterings of a tempted monk are indeed very entertaining to read, the reader then discovers that Browning's true purpose is to show the reader that behind the appearance of spiritual righteousness lies the heart of a corrupt and presumptuous man. In the poem the speaker accuses Brother Lawrence of several sins, such as greed and lust, but later in the poem it becomes obvious to the reader, through the detailed examples of these particular sins, that it is the speaker who is guilty of greed and lust, and not Brother Lawrence. For example, in stanza 4 the speaker describes the scene of two local women who daily go to the fountain outside the cloister to wash their hair. Here the speaker uses the phrases "Braids dipped in the tub / Blue-black, shiny, thick as horsehair" (27-28) to describe the scene at the fountain, and it is evident from the rich details that this is the speaker, and not Brother Lawrence, who was looking at the women. This statement is further supported by lines 30 and 31, where the speaker says, "Can't I see his dead eye shining / As bright as if it were a Barbary corsair's?" This simile clearly tells us that the speaker is referring to the emotion of passion that he himself felt when he saw the women at the fountain. What makes the speaker so interesting is that instead of admitting his own guilt, he instead projects his own lust for women onto Brother Lawrence in an effort to make the innocent monk appear guilty. Browning allowed the speaker to unintentionally reveal, through his attitude and malicious words, his corrupt and evil personality to the reader. From the first two lines of the "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" the object of the speaker's hatred is revealed. "Gr-rr---there, horror of my heart! / Water your damned flowerpots, do it!" The speaker then goes on to list a series of accusations against Brother Lawrence, ranging from the way the innocent monk tends his garden to his enlightened dinner table conversations. The speaker's hatred towards Brother Lawrence never diminishes once, but rather increases with each disturbing remark, so much so that in the last stanza the speaker is willing to take the extreme risk and sell his soul to the devil in exchange of brother Lawrence's hatred. damnation. But what's funny about this contract with the devil is that the speaker is careful to create an escape clause for himself. "Or, there is Satan! One mightventure / promise him one's soul, but leave / such a flaw in the contract / as if he would lack it until the recovery past" (65-68). The irony in these lines is that if a single soul were to suffer damnation it is she is the soul of the speaker. It is the speaker who lusts after the women at the fountain, and it is the speaker who is the owner of the "scrofulous French novel" (57), with which he intends to tempt Friar Laurence by placing it among the monk's possessions. the very fact that the speaker is the one who wishes to "deceive" the devil implies that it is quite evident that the speaker is the one who lacks morality, and not Brother Lawrence. Perhaps the most fascinating element of the speaker's personality is quality animalistic which he shows throughout the poem. He opens and closes the poem with a bestial sounding "Gr-rr", which certainly makes us think of him as a wild animal. Another example of the speaker's carnal nature is the setting of the poem. It is in the monastery garden that the speaker secretly watches Brother Lawrence, who tends to his plants, just as a predator would watch its prey. He moves stealthily in the background, observing and criticizing his enemy, and then vents his hatred out of earshot of his brother Lawrence. These types of actions present clear evidence that the speaker has a carnal nature, causing the reader to question the sanity of this embittered monk. Another method used in poetry that helps to emphasize the malice the speaker feels is the use of final lines. . Instead of letting his sentences continue uninterrupted into the next line, Browning uses punctuation marks, such as a question mark or exclamation point, to create a pause in the speaker's speech and in the structure of the poem. Here is an example of how Browning uses the final lines in the "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister": "Oh, those melons? If he can, we will have a feast! How nice! One goes to the abbot's table, we all take a slice each. How they go your flowers? No double? Can't you spy a single fruit? And so do I, so disturbed, hold them tight in secret! (41-48)Few people realize that the poem is not only structured in iambic tetrameter, but that each stanza is also structured as a list of complaints the speaker begins to list every dislike he has for Brother Lawrence, and in doing so tries to expose the monk's immorality by listing each of the sins he has supposedly committed. This type of structure created by the speaker leads us to the conclusion that the speaker has long since passed the point of simply being irritated with Brother Lawrence, and that the anger he feels towards the innocent monk has been endured for a long time Despite all grammatical structures that help the speaker express his anger and frustration towards Brother Lawrence, what sets this poem apart from Browning's other works, and also helps bring humorous life to the narrative of the poem, is the sarcasm used by the speaker . The use of sarcasm within the poem gives a strong presence to the speaker's derision of the poor monk, and also helps to express his utter disgust for Brother Lawrence, or perhaps his disgust with himself. One can't help but smile when the speaker releases a bitter outburst, such as the line: "Whew! We'll have our plate polished, / Laid carefully on our shelf!" (18-19). Browning emphasizes the speaker's sarcastic tone by using a large amount of punctuation, which reinforces the speaker's heated tone and the humorous way he expresses these mischievous words. When the narrator wishes to lash out at Brother Lawrence, Browning uses an exclamation point. "God's blood, mine wouldn't kill you!" (4), or “Hell will drain you with its,.