E.A. Robinson (1869-1935)

During the 1920s E.Robinson was generally regarded as America’s greatest living poet. Three times he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Yet by the time he won the prize for the first time he was already 53 years old.
Robinson spent his youth in Gardiner, Maine, the fictitious “Tilbury Town”. His poems fall roughly into 2 classes:
• the earlier Tilbury portraits, which grew out of his New England experiences;
• the later narrative poems like “Lancelot and Tristam”, which are based on medieval legends.

“Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy” belong to the earlier group. Tilbury Town gallery is composed of “cheated dreamers” and “bewilded mediocrities”, most of whom manage in one way or another to withdraw from hard reality. But Robinson’s pessimism is always tempered by wit and imagination, often by flashes of wry humour.

“Richard Cory”
• This poem builds up to a surprise ending. Cite details that make this ending a surprise.
• What does the poem say about human insight?
• Describe the tone of the poem. How can you describe rhythm, rhyme and diction (sounding) of the poem?
• Is there a contrast between the techniques of the poem and the subject matter of it? What is it? What effect does it create?
• Critics usually say about “sustained irony of the Tilbury poems”. How does the author create this ironic effect in the poem?

“Mr.Flood’s party”
Robinson had a perfect ability to manage rhythms and sounds to convey the meaning and mood of the poem. A good example of it is the last lines of the poem.
• How did he achieve this effect?
• What sounding effect did he use in the last lines?
• How can you characterize the rhythm of the concluding lines and of the whole poem in general?
• Why do we feel sympathy reading this poem?
• Why did the author use so many allusions and images from medieval literature?
• Can we say that he made use of traditional themes such as the Arthurian legends?
• What can you say about rhyme? (The poet rhymes the second and the fourth/the sixth and the eighth lines in a stanza).
• Rhythm and sounding of the poem play more important role than rhyme. How can you prove it?
• What about such devices as run-on line and use of punctuation marks and caesuras? Can we say that they “create” an unforgettable rhythm of the poem?
• The structure of a poetic line has sometimes certain peculiarities, can we say that a peculiar structure of a poetic line contributes to appearing (maintaining) a certain rhythm of the poem?
• Find some stylistic devices, cite your examples.
• Can Robinson be called a traditional, conventional poet?