Ans: “The Patriot” is all of the most wonderful poems written by Robert Browning who is a prominent Victorian poet. Browning is best known as a writer of dramatic monologues. He has handled this form in his poems very successfully. His famous poem “The Patriot” is a striking example of dramatic monologue. This very poem upholds horse the features of dramatic monologue. It will be clear to us when we go through it.

The dramatic monologue is the type of poem in which there is a single speaker and a listener or listeners. Usually, a listener is present who does not speak but plays an important part in the development of the poem. Dramatic monologue mainly deals with the study of psychological conflict. It has an abrupt and arresting beginning, suggesting that the present situation is a continuation of something that has gone before. Let’s examine the present poem to mark it as a dramatic monologue.

“The Patriot” is about a patriot who narrates his own story from the first-person point of view and reveals his thoughts publicly. The very poem opens with a dramatic beginning which shows the reminiscence of the speaker’s glorious past. The opening lines of the poem —

” It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
………. A year ago on this very day. “

The speaker starts the poem with a description of the grand ovation and then reveals what is happening to him now i.e his psychological state of mind.

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker tells us about his glorious past when he returned to the town as a hero one year ago. A year ago he was given a grand welcome for his heroic deeds on his arrival in the town. People had thrown roses and myrtles in his path. House roofs were filled with people. Lights burned all night and flags fluttered freely in Churches. Sweet sounds of bells filled the atmosphere. People seemed to be so eager to place their hero that they would have fetched anything for him. The patriot revealed that he has done many impossible things which pleased people.

But after one year everything changed. Everything he did during one year was considered a crime by the people. Here, the speaker reveals his psychological state of mind after being accused as a criminal. The people turned against him and decided to hang him publicly as a punishment. There is nobody on the rooftops rather they have gone to the death post at Shambles Gate to witness his execution.

When he is being taken, he feels his forehead is bleeding because whoever has a mind throws stones at him. He undergoes physical as well as mental torture. He says —

” And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year’s misdeeds. “

On his way to death, the patriot has a few consoling thoughts. A man who is unjustly tortured and punished in this world is sure to get God’s love in the other world. The patriot says —

” God might question; now instead,
‘Tis God shall repay: I am safer so. “

Taking all the poems into consideration, we can say that the poem “The Patriot” has the features/elements of the dramatic monologue such as a single speaker, silent listeners, a dramatic beginning, and the psychological state of mind. Through the description of the speaker, we feel the presence of the silent listeners. So, there is no doubt to mark “The Patriot” as a dramatic monologue.