The poem is a psychological portrait of a medieval monk. In its first constitution (1849) DGR tied it to a specific place, and strongly suggested a specific period as well: Ghent in the fourteenth century. The poem is plainly a Pre-Raphaelite creation in its studious use of concrete detail, as well as in its effort to develop a general statement about a certain period, place, and cultural phenomenon. When DGR published the poem in the fourth number of
“Pax Vobis”and appended the subscription
“Ghent: Church of St. Bavon”. (DGR and Hunt must have visited the medieval abbey church of St. Bavo in the east quarter of the city during their visit to Ghent and Bruges.) In 1881 the title became
Swinburne, who thought highly of the poem, tried to persuade DGR to print it in his 1870
DGR probably wrote it in the fall of 1849, at or shortly after the time he was in Ghent on his trip to Paris and Belgium with Holman Hunt. But it may have been done a bit later, as a recollective piece; in any case, no later than March, 1850.
The only known
DGR heavily revised his early text of the poem when he was preparing to publish it in his 1881
Swinburne thought the piece “a lovely study of colour and
feeling...too subtly faithful and delicately fine in feeling and handling, to be
thrown over
” (
First printed under the title “Pax Vobis
” in
Although not directly connected, the 1856 watercolour
Nasaar reads the poem as an explicit critique of Wordsworth.