Selected Poems - (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) by Edwin Arlington Robinson (Paperback)

About the Book

Edwin Arlington Robinson's finely crafted, formal rhythms lay bare the loneliness and despair of life in genteel small towns, the tyranny of love, and unspoken, unnoticed suffering. An Introduction sheds light on Robinson's influence on other poets--from Eliot and Pound to Frost and Berryman--and brings an unjustly neglected poet to new readers.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

By the Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry

About the Author

Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22,1869 - April 6, 1935) was an American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

Robert Faggen teaches at Claremont McKenna College.