Definition and Examples of Dramatic monologue – Literary Terms

dramatic monologue definition, dramatic monologue examples, what is a dramatic monologue,

Definition and Examples of Dramatic monologue – Literary Terms

Dramatic monologue:

The dramatic monologue is a POEM in which a single CHARACTER, overheard speaking to a silent listener, reveals a dramatic situation. The poet best known for dramatic monologues is Robert Browning, who, in "My Last Duchess" and "Andrea del Sarto, " created minor masterpieces of DRAMATIC IRONY. A number of FOLK BALLADS are dramatic monologues. Dramatic monologues also have been written by Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin A. Robinson, Carl Sandburg, T. S. Eliot, Conrad Aiken, Robert Frost, Amy Lowell, and Robert Lowell, among others.

Here is the beginning of one by Amy Lowell, entitled "Number 3 on the Docket":

The lawyer, are you?

Well! I ain't got nothin't say..

 Nothin'!

I told the perlice I hadn't nothin'.

They know'd real well 'twas me.

Ther warn't no supposin'.

Ketchin' me in the woods as they did,

An' me in my house dress.

 Folks don't walk miles an' miles

In the drifted snow,

 With no hat nor wrap on 'em

Ef everythin's all right, I guess.

All right? Ha! Ha! Ha!

Nothin' warn’t right with me.

Never was.

Oh, Lord! Why did I do it?

Why ain't it yesterday,

 and Ed here agin? 

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