The One and Only Edwin Arlington Robinson

   Before this class, I have never even heard of Edwin Arlington Robinson. Now that I know of his existence, and know that he writes poetry, I am going to take three of his poems and tell you which one I believe is the best. The three poems are "Richard Cory", "Luke Havergal", and "Mr. Flood's party". 

   The first thing that I noticed with just the titles was that they all include a name. Richard Cory, Luke Havergal, and Mr. Flood. So, without even looking at the poem itself, I can tell that characterization is a key concept in these poems. Since they all share the concept of revolving around a person, maybe Robinson was describing himself. The three different people could represent Robinson at three different times. Before I go deeper into this thought, I'm going to analyze the three pieces of poetry.

First, Richard Cory. This four stanza poem is short, has an ABAB rhyme scheme, and the contrast of dark and light. The dark and light can also refer to Yin and Yang. Yin, being the dark side, and Yang being the light. So, everything that's evil and bad would go under Yin. Everything that is good and positive would be Yang. When Yin and Yang mix, chaos appears. In the first line of the poem, Robinson said, "Whenever Richard Cory went down town," down, would be Yin, since down is thought of as bad. The next Yin-Yang reference was in the first line of the last stanza, "So on we worked, and waited for the light," this is easier to catch since the word is, "light" representing Yang. Then, chaos appeared in the third line of the last stanza when Robinson wrote, "And  Richard Cory, one calm summer night," the word "calm" would be Yang and the word "night" would be Yin and since they were put together, the reader should know that something chaotic would happen. The very last line in the last stanza proves my point, and that line reads, "Went home and put a bullet through his head." Richard Cory killing himself was the chaos of Yin and Yang finally coming together. 

What's interesting about this poem, is the fact that even though it's about Richard Cory, the narrator is, "we people", the working class. The poem repeats, "we" and "we people" to separate them from Richard Cory. The people don't know who Richard Cory really is, they just describe him as they see him. In the last line of the first stanza "we people" described Richard Cory as, "imperially slim", the whole second stanza described him,

 "[a]nd he was always quietly arrayed,

[a]nd he was always human when he talked;

[b]ut still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"[g]ood-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

   With just the second stanza, the reader learns that Cory Robinson is an attractive but quiet young man that stole the hearts of many with a simple "good morning". 

A couple of those lines stood out to me. One was, "...he fluttered pulses when he said..." I can see people looking at a person and holding their hand over their heart in awe. The other line that stood out was, "...he glittered when he walked." It's an embellished way of saying that he walked with confidence. This is how the people see him, they think that Richard Cory is happy and confident, but in reality, he is really upset. The reader wouldn't know this until they read the chaos point in the third line of the last stanza. 

All in all, Richard Cory is the epitome of Yin and Yang.

 
The second poem is, "Luke Havergal".  This poem is longer than the last, but still has four stanzas. I believe that the poem is about death itself.The very first line says, "Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal," the sun sets in the west, so that could mean the end of something. The second line in the first stanza reads, "There where the vines cling crimson on the wall," crimson on vines could be poison. I say this because plants with red thorns have poison on them to protect them from consumers trying to eat them. With just those two lines, I see death because it has the end and poison. Maybe, Luke Havergal is listening to someone or something that will bring him to his death. The sixth line in the first stanza says, "But go, and if you listen she will call." This is where we are introduced to "she". The reader doesn't know who she is until we get a hint in the second stanza. The second line in the second stanza says, "To rift the fiery night that's in your eyes;" followed by the third line, "But there, where western glooms are gathering," The fiery night could be hot tears from grief and the "western glooms" is a reference to Yin; death. So, a woman dies and Luke Havergal is unhappy about it, meaning that he cared for her. To prove my point, the first two lines of the third stanza read,
 "Out of a grave I come to tell you this,
Out of a grave I come to quench the kiss"
Luke Havergal lost the woman he loves and he is now contemplating whether or not he should join her. I know this because of the fifth line in the third stanza, "Yes, there is yet one way to where she is," that one way is suicide. If he kills himself, he would see her again and be happy. It would be an allusion to "Romeo and Juliet" but we don't know if the woman he cared about died for the sake of their love. All that we know is that Luke Havergal could be thinking about death as a door to his happiness. I believe that he opens that door because of the second to last and the last lines in the fourth stanza,
"There is the western gate, Luke Havergal-
Luke Havergal."
in the beginning, it read, "Go to the western gate..." and at the end, it said, "There is the western gate.." So, I believe that Luke Havergal killed himself, if he is at the western gate.

 

    The final poem is "Mr. Flood's Party". This poem is the longest poem of the three at seven stanzas unlike the others which only had four. In this poem, characterization is very important, but the most important literary device is the setting. The setting is the night of the harvest moon. This is crucial because if we go back to Yin and Yang, night would be Yin; bad. The harvest moon is in November, which is at the end of the year. One quote to help with this is, "...we have the harvest moon [a]gain, and we may not have many more[...]" Mr. Flood is an old man, and he is accepting death. The end of the year, nighttime, and the fact that he said that he would not have a lot more harvest moons to see indicates that he is ready to go.
The first four lines of the first stanza read,
"Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night
Over the hill between the town below
And the forsaken upland hermitage
That held as much as he should ever know"
This part of the first stanza shows the reader that Mr. Flood lives alone, far away from the town and that he feels forgotten. Having Mr. Flood climb the hill can go back to my first thought of him accepting death, because he is climbing towards the Heavens. In Heaven, you are free and Robinson wrote about freedom in the second stanza, "'[t]he bird is on the wing, the poet says, and you and I have said it before. Drink to the bird.'" If the bird is on it's wings, then it's flight is restricted, but once is stands up, it is free to fly. Right now, Mr. Flood is restricted, but once he is at the top of the hill, he will be free to fly to the Heavens. On his journey up the hill, Mr. Flood thinks about his life at the moment while he drinks his sorrows away. He thinks about how no one in the town below him wants anything to do with him, he outlived his friends, and his time on the Earth is ending. So, he keeps drinking until he sees double. This happens in the sixth paragraph, which reads, "...[s]ecure with only two moons listening..." Every time he feels his loneliness, he drinks, which is a lot, so it makes sense as to why he is so drunk.


   I quickly put these analyses together so that you can see how I read these poems. Everyone can analyse pieces of literature differently, and I wanted you to see where I am coming from. Out of these three poems, my favorite has to be the one that I wrote the least about, "Mr. Flood's Party". The only reason why I wrote so little is because I have writers block and cannot think of anything to add at the moment. The decision itself was very hard to make because I also really like the "Richard Cory" poem as well. The whole Yin-Yang in one person intrigued me, but "Mr. Flood's Party" tugged at my heartstrings a little more. It also used the setting to help the readers know Mr. Flood a little more, like the fact that his time is coming. The Luke Havergal poem was also very good, but "Mr. Flood's Party" took the win.