Try as might, poetic drama or, for our purposes, dramatic poetry is ultimately a mirage. And it will stay as such as long as we mean to 'reconstruct' the above-quoted names when we know only too well that we have to reconstruct the respective ages and this is a sheer impossibility. Perhaps the solution is to attempt another, definitely wider definition OIdramatic poetry, as poetry that has a special speaker, a special listener and consequently involves a special instance, whose handling is direct, whose point of view rather than other considerations comes to the fore in a self-assertive manner.
If in the matter of plot and respectively character Aristotle is the leading authority in the Western tradition, in the matter of the point of view this role is taken over by Plato. But, perhaps, this is too much to say because what we are left with, in this case, is merely a suggestion. Namely, the distinction that the Greek philosopher made, between imitation (mimesis: the author speaks in the person of another, assimilating himself to that person) and simple narration (diegesis: the author speaks openly, never concealing himself) is thought to be anticipatory of the two basic positions: first-person and third-person narration.
This much, however, we can say about Plato's contribution in the field. And so, if Eminescu's definition of the novel
Dumas holds that the novel is as old as mankind. He may be right... It is the metaphor of life. Have a look at the gilt tail side of a fake coin, lend your ears to the idle song of a day with no claim to rousing more ado in the world than the ordinary ones, unveil the poetry which might lie convert in them and the novel is all there.
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