The Dramatic Monologue:-
Non dramatic poetry with a dramatic Element : In dramatic monologue , author
identifies himself with one main character or vise-versa. Here the character
became just mouth piece of the author In his dramatic monologue it is Browning
himself speaking through the mouth of his character. Browning’s Caliban is
different to the Caliban of Shakespeare in the Tempest. Here in dramatic
monologue there is no scope for action so, character just became auther’s
follower.
It is 2nd voice used in dramatic monologue.2nd voice means the voice of poet
talking to other people. In all non-dramatic poetry second voice is used . 3rd voice
can also be heard at times in Epics. The Epic is essentially a tale told to an
audience , while drama is essentially an action exhibited to an audience .
The 1st Voice:-
A lyric is the name of the short poem directly expressing the thoughts
and sentiments of the poet . So, 1st voice is the voice of poet
talking to himself or to no one is heard ,what is loosely called ‘Lyrical
Ballads’. Lyric is not satisfactory word for Eliot as it concerned with music
but here it applied to poetry which was never meant to be sung. Rather
Eliot prefer to give the name ‘meditative verse’ to what is implied by the
‘lyric’. Here the poet writes to communicate to no one else, he writes to find
relief . The poet is oppressed by the burden which he must bring to birth in
order to get relief. The poet is concerned with the expression of some obscure
impulse. He is not concerned with other
people, whether they read the poem to or understand it. When the words are
finally arranged in the right way or the best arrangement he can find.He may
experience a moment of exhaustion of appeasement of absolution and of something
very near annihilation which is itself indescribable. The poet of lyric or
meditative verse is not concerned with his audience.
Amit Vashist
Three Voices of Poetry ; not mutually exclusive i.e. they use to exist
together.
This is a fact that in each type of poetic work always shows combination
of voices. If the poet never spoke to himself, the result would not be poetry. And
if the poem is exclusively author, it would be a poem in a private or unknown
language so, that would not be a poem for masses. All three voices are audible
in poetic drama and poetry. The process of creation is different .In the 1st
voice the psychic material, his thoughts, emotions and feelings create its own
form. To the poetry of the second and 3rd voice the form is already
to some extent given.
Eliot ends the essay by telling the reader to try and distinguish the
three voices of poetry. A great verse embodies all the voices. Work of great
dramatist like Shakespeare, constitutes a world. Each character speaks for
himself. We can found Shakespeare in the characters he created “The world of
great poetic dramatist is a world in which the creator is present everywhere
but remains hidden. It is world in which
the three voices of poetry harmonies in a beautiful manner.
Amit Vashist
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