"Fra Lippo Lippi" is a dramatic monologue which incidentally conveys
the whole story of the occurrence the poem starts from--the seizure
of Fra Lippo by the City Guards, past midnight, in an equivocal
neighborhood--and the lively talk that arose thereupon, outlines the
character and past life of the Florentine artist-monk (1412-1469)
and the subordinate personalities of the group of officers; and
makes all this contribute towards the presentation of Fra Lippo as a
type of the more realistic and secular artist of the Renaissance who
valued flesh, and protested against the ascetic spirit which strove
to isolate the soul.