Browning - Introduction

A. Three main topics: love, art and religious faith/doubt

B. The form of the dramatic monologue


1. “Dramatic” and “Monologue”

2. Elements of a dramatic monologue


a. Moment of utterance

b. Interlocutor (vs. soliloquy)

c. Speaker


i. Real Author/Reader

ii. Implied Author/Reader

iii. Narrator/Narratee or Speaker/Interlocutor


3. Differences from a “conversation poem”


a. Elements of the conversation poem

b. Differences

4. The reader’s role


a. Work of detection


i. named characters

ii. temporal markers

iii. verbs

iv. rhyme

v. meter