Robinson: Poems: Edited by Scott Donaldson

by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Scott Donaldson (Editor)

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, was the first of the great American modernist poets."No poet ever understood loneliness and separateness better than Robinson," James Dickey has observed. Robinson's lyric poems illuminate the hearts and minds of the most unlikely subjects—the downtrodden, the bereft, and the misunderstood. Even while writing in meter and rhyme, he used everyday language with unprecedented power, wit, and sensitivity. With his keen understanding of ordinary people and a gift for harnessing the rhythms of conversational speech, Robinson created the vivid character portraits for which he is best known, among them "Aunt Imogen," "Isaac and Archibald," "Miniver Cheevy," and "Richard Cory." Most of his poems are set in the fictive Tilbury Town—based on his boyhood home of Gardiner, Maine—but his work reaches far beyond its particular locality in its focus on struggle and redemption in human experience.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2007

About the author

Works of American poet Edwin Arlington Arlington include long narratives and character studies of New Englanders, including "Miniver Cheevy" (1907).

Edwin Arlington Robinson won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work. His family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1870. He described his childhood as "stark and unhappy."

Early difficulties of Robinson led to a dark pessimism, and his stories dealt with "an American dream gone awry."

In 1896, he self-published his first book, "The Torrent and the Night Before", paying 100 dollars for 500 copies. His second volume, "The Children of the Night", had a somewhat wider circulation.

Edwin Arlington Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1922 for his first "Collected Poems," in 1925 for "The Man Who Died Twice," and in 1928 for "Tristram."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Ar...

Reviews

[Patricia N. McLaughlin]

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry three times during the 1920s, Robinson was a darling among the literati, though his dry, intellectual style wasn’t particularly popular. Nor has most of his poetry stood the test of time, harkening back to a past that does not seem relevant to the present.

[Caitlin]

Mostly poems set in a fictitious little town, or about the people who live there. Many have a twist toward the end, though it's generally more clever than funny.

[John]

needs to be re-introduced into current critical poetic thought--
Won the Pulitzer Prize in the 1920's & America's leading poet
though unrecognized by the mainstream literary world in-retrospect--

[Atwalys Tristan]

Un poète magistral !

[Momkersch]

Edwin Arlington Robinson is the quintessential American poet. His character studies examine the essence of what it means to be a New Englander.