15+ Standout Dramatic Monologue Poems

(15 to start, 75+ to explore)

Dramatic monologue poems are characterized by a single speaker who addresses an imagined or silent audience, revealing their thoughts, emotions, and experiences.

The poem is structured as a speech or conversation, offering insights into the speaker’s psyche and personality. These poems often provide glimpses into complex characters or narrate stories from a subjective viewpoint. Dramatic monologue poems have been popularized by poets such as Robert Browning, who used this form to explore the complexities of human nature.

They allow poets to experiment with voice, perspective, and psychological depth, creating a compelling and engaging narrative.

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"> 95/100

My Last Duchess

by Robert Browning

‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a well-known dramatic monologue. It suggests that the speaker has killed his wife and will soon do the same to the next.

This poem is a quintessential example of a dramatic monologue, a form Browning perfected. It allows for a psychological depth in a single, uninterrupted speech. This structure lets the Duke reveal himself unwittingly, providing an intimate look into his complex and dark personality.

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

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"> 92/100

Porphyria’s Lover

by Robert Browning

‘Porphyria’s Lover,’ opens up with a classic setting of a stormy evening. It is a story of a deranged and lovesick man.

This poem is a quintessential example of the dramatic monologue, revealing the speaker’s character through his own words without outside commentary. Browning uses this form to expose psychological depth and moral ambiguity. The monologue’s quiet tone masks its violent content, heightening its impact.

The rain set early in to-night,

The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

And did its worst to vex the lake:

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"> 88/100

After the Titanic

by Derek Mahon

‘After the Titanic’ offers a unique character study into an important historical figure but also explores how people handle disaster.

The poem is a first-person dramatic monologue, allowing readers to hear Ismay’s thoughts directly. Mahon uses this form to make Ismay more human, even sympathetic, despite his disgrace. The monologue’s structure also mirrors his spiraling emotions and attempts at self-justification. This poem is somewhat unusual, as most dramatic monologues were written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

They said I got away in a boat

And humbled me at the inquiry. I tell you

I sank as far that night as any

Hero. As I sat shivering on the dark water

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Boots

by Rudyard Kipling

‘Boots’ by Rudyard Kipling is a memorable poem. In it, Kipling uses repetition to emphasize the struggle of soldiers on a forced march.

'Boots' exemplifies dramatic monologue through its first-person soldier's voice chronicling psychological deterioration. The speaker's increasing desperation is captured through dialectical speech ("'unger" for "hunger") and mounting psychological pressure. Like Browning's best dramatic monologues, it reveals character through voice while maintaining a clear narrative progression toward mental breakdown.

We're foot—slog—slog—slog—sloggin’ over Africa!

Foot—foot—foot—foot—sloggin’ over Africa—

(Boots—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up and down again!)

There’s no discharge in the war!

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by T.S. Eliot

Breaking away from Victorian diction, T.S. Eliot presents the distinct realities of his time in the stream of consciousness by experimenting with poetic form.

A poem written in dramatic monologue is a speech by a speaker, usually interacting with one or more people. Although the 'you' in 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is unclear, Prufrock's speech encompasses the whole poem. By presenting the speaker's or Prufrock's incoherent thoughts via stream of consciousness, Eliot adds a new dimension to the tradition of dramatic monologue developed by Robert Browning.

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table;

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

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"> 79/100

Rubble

by Jackie Kay

‘Rubble’ by Jackie Kay is a dramatic monologue that was included in her collection, Darling: New & Selected Poems. It conveys an individual’s cluttered and chaotic mind.

Direct and powerful, the poem is a brilliant example of a singular, uninterrupted dramatic monologue.

What was the thought that I just had in my head?

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"> 78/100

Havisham

by Carol Ann Duffy

‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores the psychological reality of Dickens’ Miss Havisham from a feminist perspective.

This dramatic monologue features a single speaker, Miss Havisham from Dickens' 'Great Expectations', who narrates her existence after her abandonment in the first person to an implied listener. Like a characteristic dramatic monologue, it presents the speaker's psychological reality, revealing her disturbed mental state, chaotic emotions, subconscious desires, and repressed feelings. 'Havisham' reveals the relentless torture of anguish, grief, anger, the suffering of the immense loss of life and the self, beneath a mere embittered woman, Dickens presents. Its use of loaded imagery, oxymorons, irony, morbid fixation, and vehement tone aptly creates a dramatic tension typical of a dramatic monologue.

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then

I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it

so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,

ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

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Johannes Agricola in Meditation

by Robert Browning

‘Johannes Agricola in Meditation’ by Robert Browning features the various beliefs about salvation the titular character was known for during his life.

Browning's signature style, the dramatic monologue, is clear here. The poem offers a deep dive into Agricola's psyche. It presents a singular perspective that prompts reflection on broader themes.

There's heaven above, and night by night

I look right through its gorgeous roof;

No suns and moons though e'er so bright

Avail to stop me; splendour-proof

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Warming Her Pearls

by Carol Ann Duffy

Duffy’s ‘Warming Her Pearls’ explores the restrained lesbian desire of a maid for her mistress through the pearls of the mistress’s necklace.

This poem is a dramatic monologue revealing the speaker's inner desires and sexual attraction to her mistress amid everyday happenings. It is structured into six stanzas, each having four lines, featuring enjambment, caesura, alliteration, sibilance, and internal rhyme that complement the speaker's free-flowing internal desires and sensual imagination, which is not restricted by the strict rules concerning class and sexuality. The poem is also an interior monologue, presenting the speaker's inner desires and imagination through a present-tense first-person stream-of-consciousness-like narration.

Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress

bids me wear them, warm them, until evening

when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them

round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her,

#10

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Loving Someone You Can't Have

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"> 77/100

The Lost Mistress

by Robert Browning

‘The Lost Mistress’ is a poem written by Robert Browning, it is a dramatic monologue that expresses the pain and agony of a lover.

This poem is a dramatic monologue, a form Browning frequently employed in his verse. The poem's form allows the speaker's voice to take center stage, presenting their thoughts, emotions, and experiences directly to the reader, something that really makes the poem what it is.

All’s over, then: does truth sound bitter

As one at first believes?

Hark, ’tis the sparrows’ good-night twitter

About your cottage eaves!

#11

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"> 75/100

Rabbi Ben Ezra

by Robert Browning

In ‘Rabbi Ben Ezra’ by Robert Browning, aging wisdom urges surrender to divine plan, embracing life’s imperfections for spiritual refinement.

'Rabbi Ben Ezra' unfolds as a dramatic monologue, presenting the introspective musings of its titular character. Through this form, Browning allows Rabbi Ben Ezra to express his thoughts, reflections, and philosophical insights directly to the reader. This narrative technique immerses the audience in the speaker's inner world, offering a profound exploration of themes such as aging, spirituality, and the human condition.

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand

#12

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"> 75/100

The Confessional

by Robert Browning

‘The Confessional’ by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue following a woman who is betrayed for her blind faith.

'The Confessional' is a dramatic monologue, which often tells a story through a character's perspective. In this poem, we see a tale told by a woman who starts in a prison of some type and recounts the events that led her there.

It is a lie—their Priests, their Pope,

Their Saints, their... all they fear or hope

Are lies, and lies—there! through my door

And ceiling, there! and walls and floor,

#13

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Pictor Ignotus

by Robert Browning

‘Pictor Ignotus’ is a poem about an artist who chooses obscurity over fame, painting religious works in solitude rather than seeking public acclaim.

In this form, a single character speaks to an audience or themselves, revealing their thoughts and feelings. The poem is written in iambic pentameter and has a steady rhythm, which creates a contemplative tone. This form allows deep exploration of the painter’s internal conflict, giving insight into his emotions and choices. The dramatic monologue effectively shows the painter's personal reflections and struggles.

I could have painted pictures like that youth’s

Ye praise so. How my soul springs up! No bar

Stayed me–ah, thought which saddens while it soothes!

–Never did fate forbid me, star by star,

#14

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Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941

by Carol Ann Duffy

‘Woman Seated in the Underground, 1941’ is a haunting portrait of a woman’s fractured mind as she sits in silence, trying to remember who she is in the aftermath of war.

This poem is written as a dramatic monologue. That means we hear just one voice throughout the whole piece, and that voice belongs to the woman sitting in the underground station. Everything we read comes directly from her thoughts as she tries to make sense of what she is feeling. There is no outside narrator or explanation, just her inner voice speaking as if she is thinking out loud to herself.

I forget. I have looked at the other faces and found

no memory, no love. Christ, she’s a rum one.

Their laughter fills the tunnel, but it does not

comfort me. There was a bang and then

#15

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The Biographer

by Carol Ann Duffy

‘The Biographer’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a dramatic monologue that features a biographer speaking to his subject, discussing his feelings, and more.

This poem is a great example of one of Duffy's dramatic monologues. The speaker, a biographer, is the sole narrator of this piece. It's only through his perspective that readers understand the world.

Because you are dead,

I stand at your desk,

my fingers caressing the grooves in the wood

your initials made;

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15+ Standout Dramatic Monologue Poems

(15 to start, 75+ to explore)

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15+ Standout Dramatic Monologue Poems

(15 to start, 75+ to explore)

by Robert Browning

by Robert Browning

by Derek Mahon

by Rudyard Kipling

by T.S. Eliot

by Jackie Kay

by Carol Ann Duffy

by Robert Browning

by Carol Ann Duffy

by Robert Browning

by Robert Browning

by Robert Browning

by Robert Browning

by Carol Ann Duffy

by Carol Ann Duffy

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