SOURCE: "A Heroic Dramna," in Commentary, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1948, pp. 87-8.

In the following essay, Spender discusses the revival of interest in poetic dramas and favorably reviews Jacob's Dream.

Recent years have seen a revival of interest in the poetic drama. Although it cannot be said that the poetic form has achieved significant victories in the theater, it may be claimed that the modern poet can only express certain ideas in dramatic form and that some of the most important poetry written in this century has, in fact, been dramatic. That important poems should be written which depend for their realization on a theater which cannot interpret them adequately, is an unsatisfactory situation. Nevertheless this should not lead us to ignore the fact that some of the most effective poetic statements of our time have been made in the poetic plays of Claudel, The Dynasts of Thomas Hardy...