Victorian poetry

In order to be a dramatic monologue, a poem must be a narrative poem with the speaker -the first person singular I- which stands for a singular character different from the poet himself and a silent listener, that is the reader. The speaker uses an argumentative tone and the reader usually completes the dramatic scene by using inference and imagination.

The poem usually reveals the speaker's crucial moments of crisis those showing great interest in human psychology. There is the presence of different points of view seems the speaker must be judge only on the basis of his work.This suggestion of the absence of a unique truth was the exact opposite of the victorian love for certainties and paved the way to new possibility for the best poetry of the modern age, bringing very closely in touch with the often unpredictable movement of human mind.

The main features were:

 1. the use of the first person singular I, which stands for a persona distinct from the poet;

2. the use of verbs or expressions that refer to a listener or interlocutor, who does not appear directly in the poem;

3. the use of colloquial language with different degrees informality;

4. the use of the dramatic rather than lyrical language, that can recognize by the presence of fillers like "you see", "well" or deictic "here", "there", "that", "this" as is typical of the language of drama;

5. the revelation of personality , or a particular pathology of a personality occurring a critical point of life.

The poet uses the dramatic monologue reveals a marked interest a human psychology and the need to go beyond the limits of his own self experience.That is the reason why the dramatic monologue is often connected with the historical character, but it is more generally and instrument for a poets investigation into the variety and complexity.