The poetry of experience: The dramatic monologue in modern literary tradition - Robert Langbaum

In this ‘splendidly able book’ (New Statesman) Robert Langbaum discusses, in a fresh, authoritative approach, a new kind of poetry, ‘the poetry of experience’. This new poetry, he argues, is exemplified in the dramatic monologue, a form which depends upon our temporary identification with the speaker, and upon the tension between our sympathy with him and our judgement of him.

Marshalling an array of erudite quotations taken largely from the last century (his treatment of Browning does much to re-establish him as a poet of singular compassion, vitality and moral discrimination) Mr Langbaum compares the perspective and structure of the dramatic monologue with that of traditional drama, discusses it in relation to Shakespearean soliloquy, and shows the importance of the lyric element.