10 Examples of Dramatic Poems

The dramatic poems They are literary texts that have dialogues written in verse and that were written with the purpose of being represented before an audience. For instance: The seven against Thebes of Aeschylus.

Dramatic poems are very long, since they are the first plays. At present it is more common for plays to be written in prose, so they are no longer poems (although dramatic poems are still performed in opera).

Dramatic poems are composed of stanzas (a set of verses). There are different types of stanzas that vary according to the number of verses, the length of the verses and the rhyme. For instance:

BASSÁN.
Only the mighty Ahasuerus,
that admiring the world reigns
in one hundred and twenty provinces,
did so much greatness:
from India to Ethiopia,
of Medes, Parthians and Persians
it's absolute sir.

AEGEAN.
What annals, what stories do they tell
since God formed Adam
and the most beautiful Eva,
until that famous flood
with which he punished the earth,(Lope de Vega)

This dramatic poem begins with a

dialogue between two characters and the parliaments are written in romance, an eight-syllable verse stanza that has assonance rhyme in the even verses and that does not have a certain length.

But there are also other types of stanzas, and there are rules for using them depending on the type of dramatic poem they are in, the type of character speaking, the part of the poem, and the theme being narrated.

There are different types of dramatic poems, which at first were very rigid and later elements of these began to be mixed to create new types of compositions. The classical and traditional compositions are:

Characteristics of dramatic poems

Examples of dramatic poems

1. Cistellaria of Plautus (254 a. C. - 184 a. C.). This Roman comedy deals with a fairly recurring theme of this subgenre: love intrigue, since represents the story of two young people who wanted to get married, but the father of one of them did not approve of the relationship. In addition, thanks to this event, the story tells what was the true identity of Selenio.
2. The madness of Hercules of Seneca (4 a. C.- 65 d. C.). In this tragedy a single episode is narrated, which is the madness that triggers the death of the mythical hero. This episode takes place after Hercules has completed his twelve labors.
3. Euripides' Trojans (represented in 415 a. C.). This Greek tragedy tells the fate of Trojan women after the Trojan War. Being a tragedy, all the characters are noble and there are interventions by the gods that modify and determine the fate of the characters.
4. The beautiful Esther (1610) by Lope de Vega. In this tragicomedy the story of Esther is told, a biblical story. Esther was chosen to marry King Ahasuerus and after marrying him, she performed various heroic acts to save the Jewish people.
5. The great sultana doña Catalina de Oviedo (1615) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. This is a comedy that deals with one of the most used themes in dramatic poems at that time: captivity. This work represents the story of Catalina de Oviedo, who was a prisoner of a sultan, but was released to marry him. After her marriage, Catherine was allowed to retain her religion and her Christian customs.
6. The goblin lady (1629) by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. This is a swashbuckling comedy, that is, a comedy featuring common characters. The story is inspired by the myth of Cupid and Psyche, since there is a man, Don Manuel, who falls in love with a woman who always hides, Doña Ángela.
7. The condemned as distrustful (1635) by Tirso de Molina. This dramatic poem has elements of comedy, but it also has dramatic elements. The story of this play has two protagonists: Paulo, a monk who is apparently a good man, and Enrico, who is apparently an evil man, because he is a criminal. But in the outcome of the play there is an unexpected twist that modifies the way of being of both characters.
8. Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare. This work is a tragedy written mainly in verse, but it includes some modifications to the tragic subgenre, since some parts are written in prose. The story of this work focuses on the relationship of Romeo and Juliet, two young people who were in love, but whose families were forbidden to marry, because they were estranged. Being a tragedy, the outcome of this play is dire.
9. Andromache (1667) by Jean Racine. This tragedy focuses on narrating the myth of Andromache. She was a Trojan woman and was the wife of Hector, a Trojan prince who had been assassinated by Achilles. The play begins by narrating that Andromache was given as a slave to Pyrrhus, an Achaean who was the son of Achilles. The heroine did everything possible not to marry Pyrrhus and to save the life of her son, but the play ends with a tragic denouement.
10. King Oedipus (430 a. C.) by Sophocles. This play is one of the best known and most studied Greek tragedies of all time. The story narrates the myth of Oedipus, a noble character who could not escape the prophecy sent by the gods, that is, who could not escape from his tragic and dire destiny.

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