Dramatis Personae is a Latin term meaning “characters of the play,” often presented as a list of the people, figures, or personifications who appear in a dramatic work, including plays and verse dramas; in poetry, it can also refer to the “cast” of voices involved in a dramatic monologue or narrative poem, giving readers a clear sense of who participates in the poetic action, sometimes with descriptive notes to outline roles, class, or symbolic importance.

Dramatis Personae is the list of characters in a play or dramatic poem; in poetry anthologies it sometimes introduces speaking voices.