Selected Poems

Front Cover
Penguin Publishing Group, 1997 - Literary Collections - 182 pages
A Penguin Classic

A best seller in his lifetime though neglected in recent years, Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) is due to be restored to his rightful place in literary history as one of the first great American Modernist poets. His poetry was revolutionary, though it looked deceptively conventional because it was written in metre and rhyme. He cast aside the stiff archaism and prettiness favoured by his contemporaries, instead employing everyday language with dramatic power, wit, and sensitivity. His lyric poems illuminate ordinary people, especially the downtrodden, the bereft, and the mistunderstood. In the process he created the gallery of character portraits for which he is most fondly remembered, among them Eben Flood, Aunt Imogen, Isaac and Archibald, Miniver Cheevy and Richard Cory.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Contents

Calvary
10
Credo
23
Aunt Imogen
39
Copyright

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About the author (1997)

Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 - April 6, 1935) was a poet. He was born in Head Tide, Maine. Robinson attended Harvard University from 1891 to 1893. Robinson published two volumes of poetry. To make ends meet, Robinson worked as a checker of shale used to build the New York subway system. Theodore Roosevelt later helped Robinson get a job as a clerk in the New York Customs House, a position he held until 1910. Robinson is a three-time winner of the Pulizer Prize: In 1921 for Collected Poems; in 1924 for The Man Who Died Twice, and in 1927 for Tristram. Robinson died of cancer on April 6, 1935 in the New York Hospital (now New York Cornell Hospital) in New York City. He is an associate professor of literature at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of Robert Frost & the Challenge of Darwin.

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