Robert Browning and John Betjeman

¶ … Robert Browning and John Betjeman respectively concern themselves with some form of religious hypocrisy. Robert Browning's speaker in "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" for example harbors murder and hatred in his heart while conforming to the religious and pious rituals of the place of worship. In the same way, the female speaker of Betjeman's poem, "In Westminster Abbey," appears to pray very sincerely, even if many of her words are somewhat misguided. Upon deeper analysis, however, it becomes clear that her heart is as hypocritical as that of the monk in Browning's poem. The poets therefore both juxtapose the true nature of the respective speakers with the symbolic veneer of piety represented by the places of worship. This is done by a number of poetic elements, including diction, contrast, and symbolism.

In general, the symbolic images in both poems address the juxtaposition of appearance and reality. The physical structures of the Spanish Cloister and Westminster Abbey can be seen by human eyes. No special skills are required to quantify their dimensions. These are then symbolic of the faith each respective speaker is attempting to display to the public view. The symbolism can be carried further by noting that the souls gathering in each place of worship may reflect the physical structure of the buildings in which worship occurs. However, the souls housed in the worshipers may not be as pristine as the religious buildings would indicate.

In the same way, the speakers depicted by Browning and Betjeman have a very beautiful religious veneer -- or at least believe they have -- while in fact their souls are very far from the faith they are attempting to display. The religious buildings therefore represent faith, while the speakers in the poems represent a departure from that faith, even while believing that they respectively are favored by God.

A very prominent element in Browning's poem is diction, which he uses to emphasize the contrast indicated by the Cloister and the speaker. From the beginning to the end of the poem, the speaker's interior monologue is violent, angry, and even murderous towards a fellow monk, Brother Lawrence. His diction is contrasted to the pious diction; generally in Latin, that he quotes. As such, his colloquial and non-verbal utterances form a strong contrast to the formal Latin used in the Cloister. This is the reality of the monk's inner world. It is angry and destructive, in contrast to his external veneer, which is formal and pious, according to the conventions of the Cloister.

This conventional approach to religion is also suggested by the rhyme scheme, which is comprised of nine eight-line stanzas, with a cross-rhyming scheme. This correlates with the formally religious symbolism of the Cloister and its schedule.

The speaker's tone is angry and destructive. He uses increasingly extreme language to depict his increasing departure from formal faith. Although he retains the form of faith, his inner world becomes increasingly angry, until his anger replaces his faith entirely, as depicted by his shocking reference to Satan in the final stanza: "Or, there's Satan! -- one might venture / Pledge one's soul to him…" The speaker's final words both echo and seal his anger: "Ave, Virgo! Gr-r-r -- you swine!"

There is nothing the speaker can do to change the way he feels. The final line depicts the persistent contrast between the monk's inner and outer lives. Externally, he is -- or believes he is -- piety itself. His inner world however seethes with a bitterness that is utterly unchristian. In this, Browning depicts him as the worst of religious hypocrites: he believes he is righteous, and remains completely unaware of his own shortcomings, while condemning others for their significantly smaller sins.

The same unawareness is manifest in the female speaker depicted by Betjeman's poem.

Her external and internal worlds also contrast, but much less clearly than that of Browning's monk. From the beginning, it is clear that she highly values status and leadership. For her, Westminster Abbey is significant not only for its purpose as a place of worship, but also for its use as a final resting place for "England's statesmen." The importance of this idea is indicated both by its position in the poem and its repetition. The word "statesmen" in the first stanza also occurs in the final stanza, combined with the idea of leadership, where the speaker refers to the "bones of leading statesmen." This idea of status occurs throughout the poem.

The contrast in this poem is then between religious piety and an awareness of human importance as opposed to sincerity of worship. This speaker is then as hypocritical as the monk, but less violently so. Her faith is replaced by an awareness of her own status and importance as opposed to those of others.

In the poem, the woman refers to herself as a "lady" at the beginning. This establishes her self-importance already at the beginning of her poem. Like Browning, Betjeman also uses language to depict the idea of hypocrisy in his speaker. Her entire supplication is occupied by giving God a series of commands rather than requests. She demands that God spare the English population, but especially herself, from being victims of Hitler's Blitzkrieg.