commercial appeal in staging them. Instead, opera would take up verse drama, as something to be sung: it is still the case that a verse libretto can be successful. Verse drama as such, however, in becoming closet drama, became simply a longer poetic form, without the connection to practical theatre and performance. According to Robertson Davies in A Voice From the Attic, closet drama is "Dreariest of literature, most second hand and fusty of experience!" But indeed a great deal of it was written in Victorian times, and afterwards, to the extent that it became a more popular long form at least than the faded epic. Prolific in the form were, for example, Michael Field and Gordon Bottomley. Dramatic poetry in general Dramatic poetry is any poetry that uses the discourse of the characters involved to tell a story or portray a situation. The major types of dramatic poetry are those already discussed, to be found in plays written for the theatre, and libretti. There are further dramatic verse forms: these include dramatic monologues, such as those written by Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson and Shakespeare. See also Epic poetry Lyric poetry Narrative poetry Persona poetry References Further reading Denis Donoghue (1959) The Third Voice: Modern British and American Verse Drama Kasia Lech. (2021) Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre. Routledge. Online Link Kasia Lech. (2021) 5 Reasons Why Verse is the Language for Theatre in 2020s. TheTheatreTimes.com Online Link Irene Morra (2016) Verse Drama in England, 1900-2015: Art, Modernity and the National Stage. Methuen. Online Link Genres of poetry Drama