Collected Poems is a 1921 book of poetry by Edwin Arlington Robinson.
It is a collection of seven Robinson books of poetry. Many of the poems are set in "Tilbury Town", a fictional Maine village that is basically a stand-in for the real Gardiner, ME, where Robinson was born in raised. The poems deal with small-town New England life (as opposed to rural New England life which was the favorite theme of Robinson's contemporary Robert Frost). This collection includes Robinson's most famous poems, such as "Richard Cory" which is by far the best remembered and has joined the canon of School Study Media, and another famous poem, "Miniver Cheevy".
Tropes:
- Abandoned Area:
- The speaker of "The House on the Hill" is a child, playing around a house abandoned so long that there are holes in the walls. He wonders why he plays there.
- "The Dead Village" is a darker example. It starts out by saying "Here there is death." The speaker then notes that they're used to be people there, and music, and children playing. But then something happened, and "God frowned, and shut the village from his sight."
- Awful Wedded Life:
- The entirety of "The Clinging Vine" is a rant from an angry wife to her jealous husband, who is going out to cheat on her. She's responding to his entreaties to "be calm" by saying she will be as cold as ice.
- "Llewellyn and the Tree" is about a man, Llewellyn, and his shrewish wife Priscilla who is constantly berating him. Eventually he abandons her. The narrator of the poem meets Llewellyn 20 years later and Llewellyn is still happy about his decision.
- Born in the Wrong Century: The sentiment "to be born too late" is mocked in the satirical ballad "Miniver Cheevy". Miniver, a contemporary (1910) businessman, mourns that he was "born too late" and wishes that he could have been a knight or warrior in the times of ancient Greece or the Medici. At the end, Miniver "called it fate/And kept on drinking."
- The Cassandra: Unsurprisingly, in "Cassandra". Some random shouter on a street corner is preaching about how Patriotic Fervor and greed are leading the country to the brink of disaster. The crowd laughs and moves on. (This poem was published in 1916 as the United States teetered on the brink of intervening in World War I.)
- Driven to Suicide: Rich, successful, popular Richard Cory goes home one night and kills himself, and no one knows why.
- Full-Name Basis: "John Gorham" is about two lovers who are breaking up; throughout they address each other as "John Gorham" and "Jane Wayland".
- Greedy Jew: Strongly implied in "Aaron Stark". The "greedy" part is for sure, as he's called a "miser". The Jewish part isn't spelled out, but not only is he a miser, he has "a miser's nose", his name sounds Jewish, and he's also said to be a "loveless exile," which is reminiscent of the anti-Semitic stereotype of Jews not really belonging in the places where they live.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Discussed Trope. In "Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford," Jonson says "Poor Greene! I fear the color of his name/Was even as that of his ascending soul." This is a reference to "Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit
", a pamphlet by Robert Greene posted a couple of weeks after Greene's 1592 death, in which Greene says some pretty nasty things about up-and-coming young playwright William Shakespeare. - Karma Houdini: "Stafford's Cabin" has the speaker sharing an old story about a guy named Stafford who burned to death in his cabin. It was murder, as the door was barred and chained, but no one knows what happened and the killer got away.
- Lonely at the Top: The subject of Robinson's most famous poem "Richard Cory". Richard Cory is a rich, elegant, successful man who is envied by everyone around him — until he suddenly kills himself.
- The Lost Lenore: The protagonist of "Her Eyes" is a world-famous painter who can't enjoy his fame because he's in eternal mourning for his dead wife. Finally he paints her picture, and "worships" it.
- Mysterious Past: The central character in "Flammonde" is a tramp, one who gives out sage advice to the people of Tilbury. As the narrator remarks, although folks go to Flammonde for advice and wisdom, nobody knows anything about where he comes from and how he came to be an oddly sophisticated hobo.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Another Dark Lady" is a rant by the speaker to his ex-girlfriend, in which he says he doesn't ever want to see her again and says she has cloven feet (like the Devil).
- Riches to Rags: "Bewick Finzer" once had a fortune of half a million but lost it in speculation. Now he wears a "coat worn out with care" and survives on "loans" given out by the townspeople.Poor Finzer, with his dreams and schemes
Fares hard now in the race - Shout-Out: "Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford" is a shout-out to both Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. In the story Jonson says "I tell him he needs Greek." This is an allusion to Jonson's tribute poem "Ode to Shakespeare", in which, while also hailing his contemporary Shakespeare as "soul of the age!", Jonson still observes that he knew "small Latin and less Greek."
- Wham Line: The end of "Richard Cory." The poem tells how the people of the town all looked up to Cory, a rich, successful man who was admired by everybody and so well-dressed that "he glittered when he walked." Then after all that, here's how the poem ends:And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head. - Wisdom from the Gutter: "Flammonde" describes how the people of Tilbury go for advice and wisdom to Flammonde, a tramp.
