father was a prosperous lumber man, taking
advantage of Gardiner’s financial boom. His
brother Dean was twelve years older than Robin-
son, and his brother Herman was four years older.
The Robinson brothers were all voracious readers.
As a boy, Robinson was obsessed with death.
He read books picturing people with chronic dis-
eases and wondered if he would die young like his
best friend, who died of diphtheria at the age of
eleven. He did play with other boys and with his
brothers, though. He read his earliest poems to
his friends, and when they were unimpressed he
threw them into the furnace.
After graduating Gardiner High School, Rob-
inson spent a year studying classic Greek and
Roman poetry before being admitted to Harvard.
At the end of his first year, his father died. He
returned to Harvard, buthe was unable to finish
hissecondyearbecauseofhisfamily’sfinancial
difficulties. While he was there, though, he pub-
lished some poems in theHarvard Advocate.Back
in Gardiner, in 1896, he paid for the publication of
his first poetry collection,The Torrent and the
Night; it was meant to be a surprise for his mother,
but she died of diphtheria shortly before copies of
the book arrived from the publisher. The next year
a revised version of this book was published under
the title The Children of the Night.Thisbook
included some of Robinson’s best-known poems.
His brother Dean died of a drug overdose in 1899.
To support himself, Robinson worked on the con-
struction of the first New York subway.
Though he published a second volume,
Captain Craigin 1902, Robinson still struggled
in poverty until President Theodore Roosevelt,
who had heard about Robinson from his son,
wrote a glowing review ofCaptain Craigfor a
magazine. Roosevelt then secured a job for Rob-
inson in the U.S. Custom House in New York,
where the poet worked from 1905 to 1910. The
financial security supported his writing. He pub-
lishedThe Town Down the River, which included
‘‘Miniver Cheevy,’’ in 1910. He tried his hand at
stage plays but was unsuccessful. His poetry
received recognition, though. He attended the
MacDowell Colony, an artists’ retreat, in the
summer of 1911 and returned every summer
until his death.
Robinson lived for years from the moneys he
made from book sales and reading fees and also
the largess of patrons. In 1921, he received the
Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for hisCollected Poems.
He received the Pulitzer Prize again in 1924 and
1927, making him one of only two American poets
to win three Pulitzer Prizes, an honor he shares
with Robert Frost. Robinson had long-term
friendships with women but never married. He
died of cancer in New York City on April 6, 1935.Poem Text
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.
Miniver loved the days of old 5
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.
Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors; 10
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam’s neighbors.
Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town, 15
And Art, a vagrant.Edwin Arlington Robinson(Bettmann / Corbis)
Miniver Cheevy