Students are probably familiar with the term monologue from plays. Some scholars have said that a dramatic monologue is, in effect, a monologue without the rest of the play. Ask students to name previously read poems that, they now realize, are dramatic monologues or that they recall as having been so described. Alternatively, if students are not familiar with any of the following exemplars of British and American dramatic monologues, interject one or more of them into this lesson now. Now ask your students to once again take up their brainstorming and freewriting notes about Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, or Mordred and use the notes as the basis of an original dramatic monologue by one of these characters.
Writers can use for their creation any of the verse styles discussed in the preceding step.
End this activity by asking all the students who selected the same Arthurian character to read their poems aloud to the class one after the other. Elicit responses from the rest of the students to the poems about one character before going on to the next batch of poems about another character. Back to Top Of the dramatic monologues cited in the Procedures, probably only the poems by Edgar Lee Masters will be sufficiently accessible to middle school students, so use only them as exemplars for this age group. Back to Top 1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a social system built on loyalty, honor, and trust.