The Poetic Drama & Important Facts

A Brief Introduction

The Poetic drama or verse drama arose as a reaction. against the realistic, domestic and naturalistic drama of Bernard Shaw and Galsworthy. The third and fourth decades of the twentieth century witnessed a renaissance of imagination and verse in the domain of drama. Though an element of poetic fantasy was discovered in the theatre between 1890 and 1920, but this quality was subordinate to the realistic tendency. Only the Irish dramatists produced imaginative plays during this period. The major dramatists of the twentieth century are William Butler Yeats, W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, J.M. Synge, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood and John Drinkwater.

Important Facts to Remember

1. The Poetic dramatists of the twentieth century returned to blank verse and figurative prose of Elizabethan age carried to a height of glory by Marlowe and Shakespeare but they also made certain modifications in them in order to bring their poetry into close contact with reality and tried to depart from the Elizabethan tradition.

2. Poetic drama revived in the twentieth century England as a result of the efforts of the such Irish dramatists as W.B. Yeats, John Middleton Synge and Lady Gregory. Yeats wrote lyrical poetic plays in the early career of his life. His important plays are The Countess Cathleen, Paolo and Francesco, The Kings’ Threshold.

3. T.S. Eliot was a versatile genius who helped to popularize poetic drama, in England. His murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, The Cocktail Party and the Confidential Clerk are the best of their kind in his times. T.S. Eliot began his career as a dramatist by writing “The Rock.’

4. In collaboration with his friend Christopher Isherwood, Auden. wrote for performances, The Dog Beneath the Skins (1935). This play was followed by The Ascent of F6′ in (1936) and by a melodrama, on the Frontier, in 1938.

5. The interesting development in the theaters came to halt with the coming of the world war II but it was hoped that dramatic poetry would be resumed. In 1945, Mr. Martin Browne opened Poet’s Playhouse’ and produced all T.S. Eliot’s play.