1. Setting, Specialized Forms: Dramatic Monologue, Epigram
Group 2
Setting, Specialized Forms: Dramatic Monologue, Epigram
Sam Brothers and Morgan Livezey

2. Terms of Focus
Setting & Specialized Forms:
Dramatic Monologue
Epigram

3. Specialized Forms
Major literary forms of poetry and fiction contain specialized forms;
Dramatic monologue is a specialized form of poetry
Epigrams are a specialized form of both fiction and poetry

4. Dramatic Monologue
A poem that is spoken by a fictional narrator who is clearly different from the author in age, situating, or gender.
Set at some significant point in the speaker’s life
Often addressed to another character whose presence is implied by what the speaker says.
Purpose: to reveal significant aspects of his/her qualities, values and experiences.

5. Example: Mother to Son, Langston Hughes
Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair

6. Epigram
A witty saying in either verse or prose, concisely phrased and often satiric
Originally intended for inscription on a monument (tombstone or building)
Later given the satirical, often obscene verses

7. Examples: “I am not young enough to know everything.”
–Oscar Wilde
“Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.”
–Fran Lebowitz
“Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.”
-Ogden Nash