Biography:

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935), American poet and playwright, was a leading literary figure of the early 20th century.

Edwin Arlington Robinson was born in Head Tide, Maine, on Dec. 22, 1869. He grew up in nearby Gardiner, which became the "Tilbury Town" of his poems. The story is told that for many months after his birth his parents called him "the baby" because they had not wanted a boy. The name "Edwin" was pulled from a hat by a stranger who happened to live in Arlington, Mass. Robinson hated his name, for it signified to him the accidental nature of man's fate. After studying at Harvard from 1891 to 1893, he returned to Gardiner.

Robinson published his first volume of poetry, The Torrent and the Night Before (1896), at his own expense. His early verse was largely ignored. In 1905 the struggling poet was presented with a way out of his oppressive poverty when President Theodore Roosevelt, who admired Captain Craig (1902), secured him a clerkship in the New York City Customs House. He resigned from this post in 1910 to devote himself to writing.

Eventually Robinson found a patron in Mrs. Edward MacDowell, who owned the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire; here, from 1911, Robinson spent his summers. His talent was finally recognized with The Man against the Sky (1916). His prose dramas, Van Zorn (1914) and The Porcupine (1915), which anticipate in many ways the plays of T. S. Eliot, are virtually unknown today, yet they are possibly more worthwhile than many of his celebrated long poetic narratives, such as King Jasper (1935).

Robinson's late poetry was both symbolic and experimental, but his reputation chiefly rests on the austere, ironic "Tilbury Town" portraits, which express his feeling that all men are "children of the night" who find no star to guide them and get no answers to their questions. "Luke Havergal," "Cliff Klingenhagen," "George Crabbe," "Miniver Cheevy," "Richard Cory," "Reuben Bright," "Bewick Finzer," "Eros Turannos," and "Mr. Flood's Party" remain incisive explorations of early-20th-century despair.

Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry three times. He died in New York City on April 5, 1935.

Further Reading

The standard edition of Robinson's verse is the Collected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson (1937). A shorter edition is Selected Poems of E. A. Robinson (1965). His letters are contained in Selected Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson (1940); Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson to Howard George Schmitt (1945); Untriangulated Stars: Letters … to Harry deForest Smith, 1890-1905 (1947); and Edwin Arlington Robinson: Selected Early Poems and Letters (1960).

Recommended studies of Robinson are Ellsworth Barnard, Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Critical Study (1952); Edwin S. Fussell, Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Literary Background of a Traditional Poet (1954); Wallace Anderson, Edwin ArlingtonRobinson: A Critical Introduction (1967); and Louis Coxe, Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Life of Poetry (1969). See also the section on Robinson in Hyatt H. Waggoner, American Poets from the Puritans to the Present (1968).

Additional Sources

Burton, David Henry, Edwin Arlington Robinson: stages in a New England poet's search, Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1987.

Joan Robinson (1903-1983) and George Shackle (1903-1992), Aldershot, Hants, England; Brookfield, Vt., USA: E. Elgar Pub. Co., 1992.

The Joan Robinson legacy, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1991.

Turner, Marjorie Shepherd, Joan Robinson and the Americans, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1989.

Brode, Patrick, Sir John Beverley Robinson: bone and sinew of the compact, Toronto; Buffalo: Published for the Osgoode Society by University of Toronto Press, 1984.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Edwin Arlington Robinson

(born Dec. 22, 1869, Head Tide, Maine, U.S. — died April 6, 1935, New York, N.Y.) U.S. poet. He attended Harvard briefly, then he endured years of poverty and obscurity before his poetry began to attract attention. He is best known for short dramatic lyrics about the lives (mostly tragic) of the people in a small New England village; these include "Richard Cory" and "Miniver Cheevy." Among his collections are The Children of the Night (1897), The Man Against the Sky (1916), and Collected Poems (1921, Pulitzer Prize). He also wrote long narrative poems, including Merlin (1917), Lancelot (1920), The Man Who Died Twice (1924, Pulitzer Prize), Tristram (1927, Pulitzer Prize), and Amaranth (1934).

For more information on Edwin Arlington Robinson, visit Britannica.com.

Columbia Encyclopedia: Robinson, Edwin Arlington,

1869–1935, American poet, b. Head Tide, Maine, attended Harvard (1891–93). At his death, many critics considered Robinson the greatest poet in the United States. He is now best remembered for his short poems characterizing various residents of “Tilbury Town,” which was based on his hometown, Gardiner, Maine. His first volume of verse, The Torrent and the Night Before (1896), was revised and reissued as The Children of the Night (1897). In 1899, Robinson settled in New York City. Although his third volume of verse, Captain Craig (1902), was poorly received by critics, it attracted the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who secured Robinson a job in the New York customshouse. He finally achieved critical recognition with The Man against the Sky (1916). Thereafter he concentrated on long psychological narrative poems, such as Avon's Harvest (1921), The Man Who Died Twice (1924; Pulitzer Prize), Dionysus in Doubt (1925), and the Arthurian romances Merlin (1917), Lancelot (1920), and Tristram (1928; Pulitzer Prize). A quiet, introverted man, Robinson never married and became legendary for his reclusiveness. Although his later poetry reveals a deep consciousness of social issues, an experimentation with symbolism, and an increasingly optimistic view of human destiny, his most lasting work is probably his early verse. “Miniver Cheevy” and “Richard Cory” are among the most famous of his brief, dramatic poems. Volumes of his collected poems were published in 1921 (Pulitzer Prize), 1937, and years after his work fell out of popular and critical fashion, in 1999.

Bibliography

See his letters, ed. by R. Torrence (1940, repr. 1980), D. Sutcliffe (1947), and R. Cary (1968); biographies by C. P. Smith (1965) and L. O. Coxe (1969); studies by Y. Winters (1946, repr. 1971) and D. Burton (1986).

Works: Works by Edwin Arlington Robinson

(1869-1935)

1896	The Torrent and the Night Before. Robinson privately prints his first volume of poems at his own expense. It includes the first portraits of the inhabitants of his imagined Tilbury Town, modeled on his hometown of Gardiner, Maine.
1897	The Children of the Night. Robinson's first published volume includes admired poems such as "Richard Corey," "Two Men," and "Luke Havergal." The volume so impresses Theodore Roosevelt that in 1902 he would help the poet gain a sinecure in the New York Custom House.
1902	Captain Craig. Robinson's narrative title poem concerns a Tilbury Town vagabond and philosopher who advances the notion that one should learn to "laugh with God." Other significant poems in the collection are "Isaac and Archibald" and "The Book of Annandale."
1910	The Town down the River. Robinson's third volume contains two of his most popular poems, "Miniver Cheevy" and "How Annandale Went Out."
1916	The Man Against the Sky. In what is generally regarded as Robinson's most important single collection, Robinson includes the title work, which he claimed summarized his philosophy; "Cassandra," an attack on American capitalism; "Captain Craig," a blank-verse narrative about an eccentric poet and philosopher; and his finest shorter poems, "Hillcrest," "Veteran Sirens," "The Poor Relations," and "Eros Turannos."
1917	Merlin. This is the initial volume of a modern-verse trilogy treating the Arthurian legend. It would be followed by Lancelot (1920) and Tristram (1927). In the works Robinson emphasizes the psychology of passion.
1920	Lancelot. The second installment in the poet's Arthurian trilogy and modern interpretation of the legend. The poem concerns the tragic outcome of Lancelot's illicit love for Guinevere. Robinson also issues The Three Taverns, a collection that includes dramatic monologues and dialogues, such as "Rahel to Varnhagen" and "Rembrandt to Rembrandt," as well as additional Tilbury portraits, most memorably "Mr. Flood's Party."
1921	Avon's Harvest. This psychological ghost story tells of a man haunted by his hatred of a persistent enemy. Robinson's other publication of 1921, Collected Poems, wins the first Pulitzer Prize awarded for poetry.
1923	Roman Bartholow. Robinson's narrative poem describes the title character's rescue from despair by his friend, who has designs on Bartholow's wife. The poem's theme and technique baffle many critics, who complain about a lack of clarity in the poem's characterizations and its unfocused drama.
1924	The Man Who Died Twice. Robinson's tragic narrative poem about the destruction of a composer's genius through dissipation wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1925	Guggenheim Fellowships. Established by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, these grants support creative work in the arts and research in various scholarly disciplines. Over the years, a veritable who's who of artists, writers, and academics would receive fellowships to support travel, research, and work.
1925	Dionysius in Doubt. Both the title poem of this collection and "Demos and Dionysius" attack the materialism of the age, the curtailment of individual liberties, and the weaknesses of democracy, prompted by Robinson's reaction over the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment (prohibition). Reviewers find the volume excessively didactic.
1927	Tristram. The poet achieves his only major public success with the final volume of his Arthurian trilogy, preceded by Merlin (1917) and Lancelot (1920). The book-length poetic narrative of the doomed love of Tristram and Isolt wins Robinson his third Pulitzer Prize.
1929	Cavender's House. In this dramatic dialogue between a man and the ghost of the wife he had murdered years before, her voice becomes his conscience.
1930	The Glory of the Nightingale. Robinson's blank-verse narrative poem dramatizes two friends' love for the same woman.
1931	Matthias at the Door. One of the poet's most powerful blank-verse narrative poems traces how the suicides of his neighbor and his wife shatter a man's shallow complacency and indifference to others.
1932	Nicodemus. Four of the ten poems in this collection have biblical subjects; three have a West Indies setting; all share a tone of tragic awareness.
1933	Talifer. Robinson attempts a dramatic narrative comedy featuring two men and two women who change partners. It is described as "the happiest of all Robinson's longer poems" and features Robinson's version of the modern independent woman.
1934	Amaranth. Robinson's blank-verse narrative poem looks at a group of individuals who chose the wrong lifework, ignoring their artistic passions to focus on the practical.
1935	King Jasper. Robinson's final philosophical statement is contained in this long narrative allegory concerning an industrialist's downfall. Robert Frost memorializes Robinson in his introduction, stating that "Robinson stayed content with the old-fashioned ways to be new."

Quotes By: Edwin Arlington Robinson

Quotes:

"Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give."

Wikipedia: Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet, who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

Biography

Robinson was born in Tide Head, but his family moved to Gardiner, Maine in 1870. He described his childhood in Maine as "stark and unhappy."^[1] His family also had problems with alcohol and his brother Herman died in part due to that. It has been speculated that his poem Richard Cory may relate to his brother. His early difficulties led many of his poems to have a dark pessimism and his stories to deal with "an American dream gone awry."^[2]

He left Maine after high school to attend Harvard University. This lasted two years and later he went to New York City to be around other authors. His first volume of poems came out in 1896, but had limited distribution. His second volume, The Children of the Night, was publicly available. He had some financial difficulties as poet, but in 1905 Theodore Roosevelt gave him a job at a Customs Office because he was a fan of Robinson's work. He later quit that job to devote himself to poetry full time. He had literary success after that, but lived a solitary life and never married.^[3] In the fall of 1891, at the age of 21, Edwin entered Harvard as a special student. He took classes on English, French, Shakespeare, and one on Anglo-Saxon that he later dropped. His mission was not to get all A's, as he wrote his friend Harry Smith, "B, and in that vicinity, is a very comfortable and safe place to hang".

His real desire was to get published in one of the Harvard literary journals. Within the first fortnight of being there, Robinson's "Ballade of a Ship" was published in the Harvard Advocate, a journal of less stature than the heralded Harvard Monthly. He was even invited to meet with the editors, but when he returned he complained to his friend Mowry Saben, "I sat there among them, unable to say a word". Robinson's literary career had false-started.

After Edwin's first year at Harvard the family endured what they knew was coming. His father Edward had died. He was buried at the top of the street in Oak Grove Cemetery in a plot purchased for the family.

In the fall Edwin returned to Harvard for a second year, but it was to be his last one as a student there. Though short, his stay in Cambridge included some of his most cherished experiences, and it was there that he made his most lasting friendships. He wrote his friend Harry Smith on June 21, 1893:

"I suppose this is the last letter I shall ever write you from Harvard. The thought seems a little queer, but it cannot be otherwise. Sometimes I try to imagine the state my mind would be in had I never come here, but I cannot. I feel that I have got comparatively little from my two years, but still, more than I could get in Gardiner if I lived a century."

Robinson was back in Gardiner by mid-summer, 1893. He had plans to start writing seriously. In October he wrote his friend Gledhill:

"Writing has been my dream ever since I was old enough to lay a plan for an air castle. Now for the first time I seem to have something like a favorable opportunity and this winter I shall make a beginning."

With his father gone, Edwin became the man of the household. He farmed their plot of land, and much to his surprise he liked it. He was often too exhausted to write after a long day's work.

Edwin self-published his first book The Torrent and the Night Before. He paid 100 dollars for 500 copies. It was meant to be a surprise for his mother. Days before the copies arrived, however, Mary Palmer Robinson died of diptheria. She never got to see her son's published poetry.

Poetry

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Edwin Arlington Robinson

The Torrent, 2003* The Children of the Night, 1897.
Richard Cory, 2003* Captain Craig and Other Poems, 1902.
The Town Down the River, 2003* Miniver Cheevy, 2003
Luke Havergal, 1897.
Van Zorn, 1914.
The Porcupine, 1915.
The Man Against the Sky, 1916.
Merlin, 1917.
The Mill, 1919.
Ben Trovato, 1920
The Three Taverns, 1920.
Avon's Harvest, 1921.
Collected Poems, 1921.
Mr. Flood's Party, 1921.
Haunted House, 1921.
Roman Bartholomew, 1923.
The Man Who Died Twice, 1924.
Dionysus in Doubt, 1925.
Tristram, 1927.
Fortunatus, 1928.
Sonnets, 1889-1917, 1928.
Cavender's House, 1929.
Modred, 1929.
The Glory of the Nightingales, 1931.
Matthias at the Door, 1931.
Selected Poems, 1931.
Talifer, 1933.
Amaranth, 1934.
King Jasper, 1935.
Collected Poems, 1937.
New England, 1927

External links

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		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
		Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
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