1. Roll no 134
T.Y B.A
TOLANI COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
Tanvi sevak
2. SHAKESPEARE POETIC DRAMA
The four great tragedies of poetic drama by
Shakespeare are
Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear
3. The revival of poetic drama
1. The concept of the poetic drama in the very beginning was adopted by
well known William Shakespeare
2. The English poetic drama had its day during the Elizabethan age
3. The university wits in general and Marlow and Shakespeare in
particular contributed their mite to the growth and development of
poetic drama
4. Shakespeare the master dramatist gave a touch of perfection to the
poetic drama especially through his tragedies and his tragi-comedies
5. Which includes Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and king- Lear and the
tempest
6. Shakespeare took drama to such a height that none of this successor
could continue it with the same spirit
7. Nevertheless we may say that poetic drama died a natural death with
Shakespeare
4. The attempt of the poetic drama in 19 century
No doubt both the romantic and the Victorian poets
attempted poetic drama during the 19 century
Importantly Keats shelly and Tennyson made a
sincere attempt to revive Shakespeare's poetic drama
As the readers tend to something which deals with
both the tragedy and comedy
The aim was to overwhelm reader
Though it was against the rules of early classics
The rules regarding the three unities of time place and
action in drama as well as the verse form was strictly
banned
The classics were staunch believer of rules the 19
century dramatist attempted a new concept apposed
by many criticism
5. Criticism on dramatic poetry
Where Tennyson Keats and Shelly revived the
views and system of Shakespeare dramatic
poetry ,
Mathew Arnold came with savior opposition .
He rightly pointed out the lack of “Architectonics”
of drama
Hence their failure of produce genuine poetic
drama which is at once poetic and dramatic
6. Arnold’s criticism and end of poetic
drama in nineteen century
By Arnold's criticism regarding techniques the
poetic drama came to and end as it was latter not
accepted by critics
7. 20th century revival of poetic drama
Poetic drama was revived only at the beginning of the 20th century and
reached a sense of perfection in the hands of T.S Eliot and Christopher
Fry
Eliot took the writing plays comparatively late in his career.
He came to theater as a mature critic and poet he had a full
understanding of the nature of poetic drama
Through his critical writings he tried to demolish many of the
misconceptions about verse drama emphasized its superiority over
prose drama
And this way created a favorable atmosphere “a current of fresh ideas “
as Mathew Arnold would put it for the flourishing of poetic drama
Through his practice he showed that verse drama is possible in the
modern age .
8. T.S ELIOT AND CHRISTOPHER FRY
The pioneers of 20th century poetic drama
9. Eliot’s four views on dramatic poetry
Eliot first talks about ,the dramatic adequacy then demands a poignant
theme ,involving symbolic characters with imagination atmosphere and
this means a fall back on the elemental emotional realities of life in
contradictions to the socio-economical issues which constitutes the
realm of the naturalistic prose drama
Secondly T.S Eliot achieved success after a lot of experimentation. His
“murder in cathedral” marks the first conspicuous success of
experimentation with its neutral style and avoidance of the echoes of the
Shakespearean blank verse ,it had only a negative value in that
The third important condition is that poetry must not be used as a mere
decoration but poetry is not an embellishment to look at but a medium
to be looked through
The fourth and the last condition for the successful revival of poetic
drama according to Eliot is the re-orientation of the attitude of the
audience as poetic drama should overwhelm
10. The special feature of the age in writing
Its special feature is the character in novel as in
every prose was regarded as suitable for comic or
low status character
While verse was retained for those of high status
This is banned in the 20th century revival moment
which took the reader to the aesthetic of emotions
and equality
