ABSTRACT
Living half of his life in the 19th century and half in the 20th,Edwin Arlington Robinson is best understood as a transitional poet. In his verse he reflects the 19th-century interest in traditional poetic forms, meters, and rhymes; his poetry abounds in sonnets, iambic tetrameter, fixed rhyme schemes, rhyming couplets, and (in his longer work) blank verse. His voice is not passionless, but it is controlled, even, and moderate. His poems are easily read and generally accessible. In his vision of the world and the lives of men and women, however, Robinson is a poet of the 20th century. He shares the Modernist view that the world is a dark and confusing place in which all men and women struggle for individuality and identity, cut off from the traditional values that sustained earlier generations. For Robinson the idea of community is frequently stifling. If God exists his will is not knowable, and suffering, weakness, and isolation are the common elements of life. In his own life Robinson strove for understanding and peace, largely through Emersonian transcendentalism. Although he lived his life without the comforts or support of church, close family ties, or marital love, he valued his friendships and the kindness of many individuals who took benefit in knowing him and supporting his life and work.
