Dramatic Monologue

Robert BrowningAlfred TennysonDante Rossetti and other Victorians

Dramatic Monologue A poem in which a single speaker who is not the

poet utters the entire poem at a critical moment. The speaker has a listener within the poem, but we too are his/her listener, and we learn about the speaker's character from what the speaker says. In fact, the speaker may reveal unintentionally certain aspects of his/her character. Robert Browning perfected this form.

(source: Abrams glossary)

From http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/dm1.html

Glenn Everett proposes that Browninesque dramatic monologue has three requirements:

1. The reader takes the part of the silent listener. 2. The speaker uses a case-making, argumentative tone. 3. We complete the dramatic scene from within, by means of inference and imagination.