that, the poet was able to support himself as a
writer, and his reputation grew. A sign of the
respectaccordedtoRobinsonwhenhewasathis
professional height was highlighted by W. R. Rob-
inson, who started his 1967 bookEdwin Arlington
Robinson: A Poetry of the Actby quoting a famous
critic of his day: ‘‘Comparing Edwin Arlington
Robinson to Amy Lowell and Edgar Lee Masters,
in his mind the ranking contemporary poets,
Edward Sapir said in 1922, ‘Mr. Robinson is the
one American poet who compels, rather than
invites, attention.’’’
When he died in 1935, Robinson was one of
the best known U.S. poets. He had won the Pulit-
zer Prize three times, a feat only matched by his
contemporary, Robert Frost, and was producing
new work to the end of his life. The publication of
his Collected Poems two years after his death
helped continue the interest that had been stirred
up by his obituaries. Noted critic and poet Yvor
Winters wrote in the 1940s that ‘‘Robinson’s best
poems appear to deal with particular persons and
situations; in these poemshis examination is care-
ful and intelligent, his method is analytic, and his
style is mainly very distinguished.’’
As the middle of the century passed, however,
Robinson’s reputation faded. Critics still took him
seriously, but audiences moved on to other works.
Denis Donoghue noted in a 1964 book the change
from 1933, when Robinson was one of the most
famous living poets: ‘‘Today,’’ Donoghue wrote,
‘‘his good gray name is attached to a handful of
short poems that are exhibited in the respectable
anthologies. But he is no longer an audible voice in
poetry.’’ John Lucas noticed the same drop in gen-
eral interest in Robinson in 1984 and asked some
college students why they seldom read his poetry.
‘‘‘Well, you see,’ one of them explained, ‘we know
just about where he stands.’’’ Lucas went on to
explain, ‘‘The implication was that once you had
got your author firmly placed, any need to read his
works had more or less disappeared.’’ Lucas then
went on to provide an argument for why Robinson
is still relevant, but such arguments are designed for
the established literary connoisseurs, missing the
general readership thatRobinson once enjoyed.
CRITICISMDavid Kelly
Kelly is a writer who teaches creative writing and
literature at Oakton Community College in Illinois.
WHAT
DO I READ
NEXT?Aside from ‘‘Miniver Cheevy,’’ Edwin Arling-
ton Robinson’s most famous poem is ‘‘Richard
Cory,’’ about the suicide of a respected, wealthy
man, who is the envy of ordinary townspeople.
Both poems, along withseveral dozen others
about interesting individuals such as ‘‘Aunt
Imogen’’ and ‘‘Bewick Finzer,’’ are included in
the posthumous collectionTilbury Town, pub-
lished in 1967 by Macmillan.
Mark Twain described dreamers like
Cheevy when he wrote his 1889 novelA
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
In Twain’s comic adventure, a contempo-
rary individual suffers a head wound and
wakes up 1300 years in the past, in the time
of Camelot, to find out that his modern
knowledge is not as helpful as he assumed.
Twain’s novel remained in print well into the
early 2000s.
Robinson’s poetry was often compared to
that of Edgar Lee Masters. Both poets wrote
short biographical poems about small-town
individuals struggling in their ordinary lives
at the turn of the century. Masters’s 1915
collectionSpoon River Anthologyis a series
of poems which are presented as first-person
testimonials on grave markers. The voices of
the dead townspeople speak the truth from
beyond the grave about their lives.
Many novels feature young adults who find
out that time travel is not as glamorous as it
seems in theory. One of the best is Caroline B.
Cooney’sBoth Sides of Time(1997), about a
girl who finds her desire to go live in a more
romantic age fulfilled when she is spirited
back one hundred years, only to become
involved in love and a murder.
Scott Donaldson’sEdwin Arlington Robin-
son: A Poet’s Life(2006) presents Robinson
in the light of new information, highlighting
his poetic gifts and depicting with sensitivity
his personal life.Miniver Cheevy