Edwin Arlington Robinson was a prolific early twentieth-century American poet whose work addresses themes of personal failure, the human condition, and what lies behind the social mask. Robinson's use of everyday speech and commitment to traditional forms distinguished his poetry from others of his time. Often using a dark sense of humor, he studied his fellow countrymen and portrayed them in satirical or philosophical ways in some of his best work. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize three times: in 1922 for Collected Poems, in 1924 for The Man Who Died Twice, and in 1927 for Tristram. Despite his popularity at the time, however, today Robinson is generally remembered for only a handful of poems.
Drawing heavily upon the town of Gardiner, Maine where he grew up, Robinson often depicted a fictional setting called Tilbury. Robinson's Tilbury Town cycle explores the issues of small-town New England: a repressive and utilitarian atmosphere influenced by Puritanism. Even if the name of the town is not mentioned explicitly (as in "Richard Cory," "Miniver Cheevy," and "Cliff Klingenhagen," among others), the regional values of Tilbury Town are still evoked. Professor Lawrence Thompson of Princeton University gathered sixty-three of these poems in the collection Tilbury Town.
Though he had strong friendships, Robinson was a very private man and led a life devoted to his craft. He died of cancer in 1935.
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an early-twentieth-century American poet who wrote about ordinary people using traditional poetic forms of rhyme and meter. "Miniver Cheevy," a narrative poem published in Robinson's 1910 collection The Town Down The...
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an early-twentieth-century American poet who wrote about ordinary people using traditional poetic forms of rhyme and meter. "Richard Cory," originally published in Robinson's 1897 collection The Children of the Night,...
