3/28/23, 5:46 PM What Is Dramatic Poetry?

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What Is Dramatic Poetry?
February 14, 2023 Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Dramatic poetry, also known as dramatic verse or verse drama, is a written work that both tells a
story and connects the reader to an audience through emotions or behavior. A form of narrative
closely related to acting, it usually is performed physically and can be either spoken or sung.
Normally, it uses a set rhyming or meter pattern, setting it apart from prose. It has evolved since
its start in ancient Greece, but it still survives today, especially in opera librettos. A lack of strict
guidelines makes it somewhat debatable what exactly counts as a dramatic poem, but in general,
the four main accepted forms include soliloquy, dramatic monologue, character sketch and
dialogue.

History
In ancient Greece, people went to the theater to see live plays for entertainment, much as
individuals do today. Those who performed in the plays often needed to memorize their parts very
quickly, so playwrights tried to help them out by putting the text into a meter or rhyme pattern that
was easier to remember. Over time, writers, actors and the general public started to prefer a more
free verse style, so by the Renaissance, plays often were made up of a combination of prose and
rhyming or metered sections. Eventually, unrestricted speech became the standard, but dramatic
poetry survived, mainly through opera librettos, as rhymes and a particular number of syllables per
line paired well with musical phrases.

Key Features
This type of poetry uses the speech and actions of at least one person to depict a scene or plot. It
is different than plain narrative because the focus is usually on how that individual emotionally or
physically controls or responds to what is going on — that is, it is more than a simple explanation
of fact. Often, it is from the character’s point of view, giving the audience an idea of his
personality, morals, history and dreams.
In general, making a fictional person come alive is much easier when someone physically can show
what that character is supposed to feel or do. This is the main way that dramatic poetry separates
itself from other forms — unlike closet poetry that someone simply reads off a page, it requires
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3/28/23, 5:46 PM What Is Dramatic Poetry?

action, such as making facial expressions, gesturing or interacting with other people or things in
the room. Acting and this type of literature have a strong link for this reason, with some actors and
actresses using it to practice.
Another key feature is that the text usually follows verse form or rhymes. As a result, it typically
ends up feeling very rhythmic. Writers often think about this as they’re making up a new dramatic
poem, because they want a person to be able to deliver the lines well, and because they want the
audience to understand what’s happening. Getting this naturalness can be hard, however, simply
because everyday speech typically is more like prose, so some writers hesitate to use this style.

Forms
Dramatic poetry can take one of several forms: soliloquy, dramatic monologue, character sketch
and dialogue. Any of these forms can stand by itself, but when a person is writing a play, he might
use more than one style, depending on how he wants to show development. The best actors and
actresses are able to move seamlessly from one form to another, although some end up
specializing.
In a soliloquy, a character speaks mainly to himself, not interacting with anyone else. It typically is
a good way to quickly show what he thinks, wants or is going to do, because it gives insights into
his mind. Perhaps the best example comes from William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Hamlet, in
which Hamlet questions whether it is better to live or die.
A dramatic monologue is very similar to a soliloquy in that it reveals something about the speaking
character. The main difference is that, here, the actor is talking to someone else in the play, not
just himself. This second person doesn’t say anything, but their presence often makes the speech
a little bit more believable. This type of dramatic poetry usually shows up during critical moments
in the plot.
With a character sketch, a writer’s main goal is to make the audience feel something for the
character, rather than to move the plot along. The feeling can be sympathy, hatred or anything in
between, but the result is usually that a person watching the play becomes emotionally connected
to what is going on, creating a more memorable theater experience. The individual delivering the
lines serves the main role of observer.
Dialogue takes at least two people, who exchange lines to direct action, give information or tell
something about themselves. The benefit of this form is that actors can play off each other,
responding naturally to what the other person does so that the play doesn’t seem overly
rehearsed. The challenge in using it in dramatic poetry, however, is that a writer has to maintain
some similarity between the rhythm and meter of the text for both speakers, even as he tries to
make each one seem to have a separate personality. Changing the meter or rhyme scheme
dramatically as each person talks can make the overall flow of the scene seem too choppy or
disconnected. An example in this group is The Shadowy Waters by William Butler Yeats.

Debate
There are no established guidelines for what exactly makes text poetic, and sometimes, the line
between straight prose and structured writing is very thin. What technically can be called a
dramatic poem, therefore, is somewhat up to interpretation. To make things even more complex,
often, people adapt “regular” poems to the stage, so when trying to categorize different works,
what a person does with the text is as important as what is in the writing itself.

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