dramatic monologue by Robert Browning?

Question

significance of dramatic monologue in browning's poetry

Answer 1

For all practical purposes, Browning's poetry is dramatic monologue -- at least almost all of his best-known poems. He was the master (and, indeed, a creator) of the dramatic monologue as a poetic form.

His first successful volume of poems, Dramatic Lyrics (1842) included what are probably his most often read poems: "My Last Duchess" and "Soliloquy in a Spanish Cloister." This was followed by Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845), with "The Laboratory," "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," and "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church."

Perhaps his most outstanding volume, the one that established his reputation for good, was Men and Women (1855), which included "A Toccata of Galuppi's," "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," "Fra Lippo Lippi," "Andrea Del Sarto," and "A Grammarian's Funeral." Then came Dramatis Personae (1864) with "Caliban upon Setebos" and "Rabbi Ben Ezra." ("Fra Lippo Lippi" and "Andrea del Sarto" are my two favorites.)

But his great masterpiece for all time was The Ring and the Book (1868-69). It consists of 12 "volumes," in which characters in an historic murder case in Rome each narrate their own versions of the trial.

I hope this gives you a sense of Browning's achievement and answers your question in a way that is helpful to you. I also hope you will read these magnificent dramatic monologues--at least the individual ones. The Ring and the Book is quite an undertaking. I appreciate your bringing his work afresh to my mind. Maybe you just gave me some Christmas reading.