M. H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry:
- A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment .
- This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.
- The main principle controlling the poet's choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker's temperament and character.
Read more about Dramatic Monologue: Types of Monologue, The Victorian Period, Drama
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