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Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson was a transitional poet between the generations of Whitman and Frost.

Today Edwin Arlington Robinson is known primarily for his poem Richard Cory, which was popularized by Simon and Garfunkel on Sounds of Silence. But he wrote others of probably greater depth, including Luke Havergal, Teddy Roosevelt’s favorite. Robinson’s poems have a way of working themselves into your psyche, the best example of which for me is Charles Carville’s Eyes; you can view an experimental short film of this poem here on this site.

Richard Cory

Robinson

Scott Donaldson (Editor). Everyman’s Library 2007, Hardcover, 256 pages, $7.03

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Charles Carville’s Eyes

A melancholy face Charles Carville had,
But not so melancholy as it seemed,
When once you knew him, for his mouth redeemed
His insufficient eyes, forever sad:
In them there was no life-glimpse, good or bad,
Nor joy nor passion in them ever gleamed;
His mouth was all of him that ever beamed,
His eyes were sorry, but his mouth was glad.

He never was a fellow that said much,
And half of what he did say was not heard
By many of us: we were out of touch
With all his whims and all his theories
Till he was dead, so those blank eyes of his
Might speak them. Then we heard them, every word.