Poetry for Students, Volume 35

Miniver loved the Medici,

Albeit he had never seen one;

He would have sinned incessantly

Could he have been one. 20

Miniver cursed the commonplace

And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;

He missed the medieval grace

Of iron clothing.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought, 25

But sore annoyed was he without it;

Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,

And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,

Scratched his head and kept on thinking; 30

Miniver coughed, and called it fate,

And kept on drinking.

Poem Summary

Stanza 1
The first stanza of the poem introduces Cheevy, a
man immediately associated with scorn (bitter-
ness), having been born to it like a hereditary
disease. His poverty is established in line 2, where
he is described as being slim, or lean, apparently
because he does not have enough to eat. This line
also serves to establish that Cheevy has carried his
scorn for years, for season after season.

In line 3, the poem establishes that Cheevy’s
scorn is not only aimed at the world around him,
but at himself as well. He regret being born, and
the fact that he was born actually makes him cry.
In the following line, the narrator comments that
Cheevy had reasons for his feelings.

Stanza 2
Having established that Miniver Cheevy is gener-
ally miserable, the poem goes on to show that he
actually does like something. He likes the past. His
interest is not in the immediate past, or in his own
past, but in distant historical periods. The images
of steeds and swords mentioned in line 6 invokes
the European medieval period.

Line 6 describes a little of Cheevy’s glorified
vision of the past. In his imagination, the horses
that knights ride are like trained show horses,
performing fancy steps as they carry their riders
along. The poem uses this image to make fun of
Miniver Cheevy in line 8, saying that he would
dance around while imagining these ancient men
in armor mounted on their horses. Imagining the
knights makes Cheevy happy and that he dances at
the thought of them makes him appear a bit silly.

Stanza 3

The first two lines of the third stanza imply that

thinking about the past is hard work for Cheevy.

He sighs, as if being forced to carry a heavy

mental burden, and in line 10 his dreams are

described as if they are actually labor for him.

Thelasttwolinesofstanza3givesomeexam-

ples of the ancient times that Miniver Cheevy

considers the only times worth living in. Thebes,

a city of ancient Greece, figures prominently in

Greek mythology.

Camelot is the fabled kingdom of King Arthur

and the Knights of the Round Table. Including

Merlin the Magician, Sir Lancelot, and the knights’

quest for the Holy Grail, the stories of Camelot are

famous for their idealistic knights who swear to

MEDIA

ADAPTATIONS

Jorie Graham, Rita Dove, and Anthony

Hecht are among those who read poems on

the five-disc collection from HighBridge

Company, titledTheClassicHundredPoems.

This box set, released in 1998, includes a ren-

dition of ‘‘Miniver Cheevy.’’

John Duke sings a musical version of ‘‘Min-

iver Cheevy’’ onButYesterdayIsNotToday:

The American Art Song, 1927–1972.Thecom-

pact disc released in 1996 by New World

Recordsisare-releaseofthe1977LP.

Jazz poet Ken Nordine gives a free-association

interpretation of ‘‘Miniver Cheevy,’’ with a

small combo accompaniment, on his album

A Transparent Mask, released in 2001 by

Asphodal.

‘‘Miniver Cheevy’’ is one of the poems read in

the Poetry Out Loud Contest. A CD of selec-

tions from that competition was released in

2005 under the titleNational Poetry Recitation

Contest. Narrated by former poet laureate

Dana Gioia, readers on the disc include

Khandi Alexander, Rita Dove, Anthony

Hopkins, and David Schwimmer.

Miniver Cheevy