POETIC DRAMA
Definition, Features, Examples
Poetic
drama also known as ‘Verse Play’ is a genre of literature that refers to plays
that contain poetic elements. It is a newly formed genre which became popular
in the beginning of the 20th century English literature.
DEVELOPMENT
OF POETIC DRAMA:
Poetic
plays were popular during the 16th century. Shakespeare, Marlowe and
others wrote such poetic plays profusely. But during the 17th, 18th
and 19th centuries these poetic plays lost their charm. But poetic
drama in the 20th century arose as a reaction to the naturalistic prose drama
of Ibsen, Shaw and Galsworthy. By the second decade of the century, this prose
drama had reached a dead end. New dramatists-cum-poets like T. S. Eliot, W. B.
Yeats and others heralded a new era of poetic plays.
· 16th century –
Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’
· 17th century – John
Milton’s ‘Samson Agonists’
· 19th century - William
Wordsworth’s ‘Boarderers’, Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound’
Though
poetic drama has been written time to time through the various ages of English
Literature but it is only during the 20th century that poetic drama established
itself as an important dramatic form.
FEATURES
OF POETIC DRAMA:
1. Poetic drama includes elements of
drama and poetry both.
2. Characters speak in verse on stage
and often use lofty syntax.
3. Its verse form is blank verse or
free verse.
4. It expresses the inner most reality
of life.
5. The writers mostly followed ancient
Greek and Elizabethan drama.
MAJOR
WRITERS OF POETIC PLAYS:
W.B.
Yeats, J.M. Synge, John Masefield, Cristopher Isherwood, W.H. Auden, Stephen
Spender, Cristopher Fry, T. S. Eliot
EXAMPLES
OF POETIC DRAMA:
· W.B. Yeats’ ‘The Countess Cathleen’,
‘The Land of Heart’s Desire’
· Christopher Fry’s ‘The Lady is Not
for Burning’, ‘Venus Observed’
· T. S. Eliot’s ‘Murder in the
Cathedral’, ‘The Family Reunion’
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