dramatic monologue

American  

[druh-mat-ik mon-uh-lawg, -log] / drəˈmæt ɪk ˈmɒn əˌlɔg, -ˌlɒg /

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of dramatic monologue

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

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

Even when he dispensed with the dramatic monologue to write in other forms, he frequently turned to art and artists as his subject.

From Washington Post