Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
This poem's in blank verse, which means the lines are in iambic pentameter and there's no rhyming. Don't get too hung up on the fancy vocab. An iamb is just a two-syllable pairing, made up of an un...
Speaker
Fra Lippo Lippi is Browning's poetic representation of a historical figure of the fifteenth century, a monk was noted for his realistic artworks. We expect him to speak of people, places, and event...
Setting
The "Big Picture" setting for "Fra Lippo Lippi" is fifteenth-century Florence, a time and place where the Catholic Church was ultra-powerful and the Renaissance was just starting to take off with g...
Sound Check
Since we're talking poetry here, sound is all important in creating an overall feel in "Fra Lippo Lippi." And that overall feel is one of a rambling drunken man coming home from a night of partying...
What's Up With the Title?
This one's easy peasy. The title, "Fra Lippo Lippi," is the name of the main speaker of the poem. Brother Lippo was a real-life artist from Florence, Italy, who is commonly thought to be the first...
Calling Card
A dramatic monologue is the term for when a single speaker goes on and on… and on. This form of writing is certainly what Browning is noted for, since he uses them all over the place. They usuall...
Tough-o-Meter
"Fra Lippo Lippi" shouldn't pose too much trouble for readers. It's written in a conversational manner, which definitely helps speed things along. It reads like a friend (albeit one that's tossed b...
Trivia
Robert Browning's 1889 phonograph reading of "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" is the earliest known recording of any poet.
(Source.)
In addition to academics, high school students...
Steaminess Rating
Even though we have the firm impression that Lippo likes his ladies (the Prior, too, for that matter), Browning pretty much leaves it at that. We get a few tantalizing details with the "sportive la...
Allusions
Judas (25)John the Baptist (34)St. John (354, 375)Herodias (196)St. Laurence (person) (323, 328)St. Ambrose (355)Job (357, 358)St. Lucy (387)
Historical
References:The Carmine: Santa M...