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 center of the monastery. The speaker works in his c...
Eating and Food
Several stanzas of this poem are explicitly about eating and drinking, and the speaker clearly has strongly held opinions about the right and wrong way to eat, what to eat and when, and how to beha...
Religious Dogma, Heresy, and Satan
The speaker of this poem is obsessed with religious dogma. He insists on obeying the letter of the law (the literal text) rather than the spirit of it (the intention behind the dogma). He obeys al...