Customer Reviews

"Miniver Cheevy" and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

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This book is classic Robison. It is a collection of his poems. Including the great and not-so-great poems. His works are wonderful and easy to relate to. Robinson was interested in those who suceeded personally, not secularly. Well done.

Edwin Arlington Robinson is a poet little read today. This paradoxically after he late in life, after long years of struggle became well known for a romantic poem 'Tristam' which is long forgotten.
If Robinson is read today it is for those devastating and chilling portraits in verse of lone individuals and their plight, the most famous of which are Miniver Cheevy, Reuben Bright, and Richard Cory.
Robinson himself had a lonely and difficult life.
I doubt that the Poetry Establishment of today finds much in Robinson. I remember however reading these poems in school and feeling them powerful and puzzling.
The contrast between the brilliant external life envied by the narrator in Richard Cory and his actual situation when ' goes home and puts a bullet in his head' startles and shocks. The regret of Miniver Cheevy cursing the day he was born, and longing to live in days of old, too exposes human aspiration as folly and vanity.
These poems throw cold water on the face of optimistic America, but like Sherwood Anderson and Thornton Wilder they reveal truths about small- town American life which are universal truths about the human situation.

While he sits to drink -glub -glub and dreams the day away Our dear old fool the man of drink is useless anyway. And so you see my comrades the fanciful is evil's seed alchahol's for devils lacking what they need. This poetry of satire wards and fends us all from denouement disaster and the one great fall.

As you can tell, we thoroughly enjoyed the title poem and all following works. While we feel that Robinson throughout his poetry maintains a relatively decent standard of excellance through use of rhyme scheme and subject matter - he doesn't quiet live up to the qualifications to be considered "one of the greats". Thus, his work, while good, isn't quite great and we have decided to liberally reward him with our kindness of a 4. Thank you for your time. It was well wasted.