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Success And Failure In The Life Of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Katey Ford

Honors Theses

Edwin Arlington Robinson always felt that writing poetry was the only career that he could pursue in his life, but also always worried whether it was a worthy pursuit in the eyes of the culture in which he was raised. In a small town like Gardiner, Maine, where the 1690s' Puritan ethic was nearly as strong centuries later in the 1890s, the concept of a career in poetry or any artistic pursuit was absurd but not nearly as absurd as being successful at it. His grounding in Gardiner's values left an indelible stamp on his life and his poetry. Like …