Edwin Arlington Robinson

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Edwin Arlington Robinson

Born December 22, 1869
Head Tide (Alna), Maine
Died April 6, 1935
Occupation Poet and Playwright
Nationality American

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

Contents

[edit] Biography

Robinson was born in Head Tide, 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 away."[2]

In the fall of 1891, at the age of 21, Edwin entered Harvard as a special student. He took classes on English, French, and Shakespeare, as well as 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 tried farming and developed a close relationship with his brother's wife. A confrontation ensued, and Robinson fled to New York, where he led a precarious existence as an impoverished poet while cultivating friendships with other writers, artists, and would-be intellectuals. In 1896 he self-published his first book, "The Torrent and the Night Before," paying 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 diphtheria.

His second volume, "The Children of the Night," had somewhat wider circulation. Among its readers was President Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit, who recommended it to his father. Impressed by the poems and aware of Robinson's straits, Roosevelt in 1905 secured the writer a job at the New York Customs Office. Robinson remained in the job until Roosevelt left office.

Gradually his literary successes began to mount. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for the years 1922, 1925 and 1928[3]. During the last twenty years of his life he became a regular summer resident at the McDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where he was the object of devoted attention by several women although he maintained a solitary life and never married.[4]

[edit] Poetry

Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
  • 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.
  • Another Dark Lady, 1935.

[edit] References

  1. ^ poets.org biography
  2. ^ PBS - I Hear America Singing
  3. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes
  4. ^ East Tennessee State University

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Persondata
NAME Robinson, Edwin Arlington
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American poet
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Head Tide, Maine
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1935
PLACE OF DEATH New York, New York