Multiple speaker is a poetic strategy that incorporates two or more distinct voices or perspectives within a single poem, often through dialogue, dramatic monologue, or typographical distinction; this polyphony allows for the exploration of conflicting viewpoints, communal experience, or internal division, transforming the poem into a space of debate, witness, or layered subjectivity.

Multiple speaker describes a poem containing more than one distinct voice, whether speakers alternate directly, overlap, answer one another, or are embedded through quotation. This can create dialogue, debate, dramatic tension, or polyphony rather than a single stable lyric self. Compare dramatic monologue, dialogue poem, persona, and chorus. Study hint: label each voice while reading and track differences in diction, knowledge, rhythm, and authority.