dramatic monologue

[ druh-mat-ik mon-uh-lawg, -log ]

noun

1. a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent listener at a critical moment, reveals something personal or related to the dramatic situation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dramatic monologue¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

In a dramatic monologue also written by Harbaugh, the coach took a direct shot at his former college rival, Ohio State coach Ryan Day.

From Los Angeles Times

Perhaps that should change: Ai is among the pre-eminent practitioners of the dramatic monologue — a persona-driven mode of poetic address exemplified in the work of Victorian poet Robert Browning.

From New York Times

Even in the wrenching song “Ahmaud” — a tribute to Ahmaud Arbery, who was gunned down in 2020 by vigilantes — Watkins avoided milking the delicate, quietly devastated piano part as Giddens sang the lyric with the immediacy of a dramatic monologue.

From New York Times

Both productions were staged by Felicitas Bruckner, a young German director who scored a coup at the Kammerspiele last year with an electrifying staging of Wolfram Lotz’s wild dramatic monologue, “The Politicians”; the three extraordinary actors who made that earlier production such a triumph are part of the small cast.

From New York Times

While it was somewhat unusual for Mr. Howard to embrace the dramatic monologue at a time when confessional poetry was in vogue, it was even more striking that he wrote syllabic verse, embracing a poetic form that was more common to languages such as French, rather than writing in free verse or adopting a more typical metric line like iambic pentameter.

From Washington Post