Richard Cory, The Growth Of Lorraine, And Miniver Cheevy

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poems all tend to show light on topics that society tries to remain hidden. One such topic is the idea that the fate we are given isn’t always the fate we want. Three poems with this idea were Richard Cory, The Growth of Lorraine, and Miniver Cheevy. By analyzing these poems and how they are written, one can see that they cover the same idea and all depict a protagonist stuck in a world they do not want to be in. All three poems show the reader that our fate is not always the way we would like it to be. In Richard Cory, his life seemed great considering he had money, education, and was loved by the town but in the end it turns out there was something missing. Richard may have had everything that others wanted
but he still was not happy with the life he was given resulting in his death in the last stanza. This also occurred in the poem Miniver Cheevy except he suffered through his miserable life instead of ending it. Miniver did not like the time period in which he was born and would rather have been born during medieval times. Although never stated, Miniver most likely had a decent life because he was born after medieval times therefore implying that he lived in a time when more medical advances had been made and society had developed. Even with all this however, Miniver still envied the lives of knights and warriors and loathed the life he was given. In The Growth of Lorraine, she thinks the life she is given is a bad one just like Richard Cory and Miniver Cheevy. She explicitly points out it is her fate to live a bad life when she tells her friend that some people are born successful while others are not. Robinson was able to express the message that fate isn’t always kind through these three poems. Along with having similar themes, the poems were also written in the same fashion.
Within each poem, there is a shift in tone that adds to the overall mood of the poem. In Richard Cory the shift occurs in between the third and fourth stanza. The first 3 stanzas talk about how great everyone thinks his life is and how everyone would like to be him. But in the fourth it shifts as the speaker goes to back to work and Richard Cory suddenly shoots himself. The poem went from a light and happily toned poem to a darker tone that makes the reader question Richards reasoning behind his suicide. The shift in Miniver Cheevy happens right before the last stanza as the speaker begins to reveal that Miniver never really experienced any of the things he thought about. Before the last stanza it had seemed as though Miniver was in the same era he dreamt about just not as a knight or warrior. The author hints at the fact that Miniver is not of the time by mentioning a khaki suit which would have not been around during the Renaissance time. It isn’t until the end that the reader learns that Miniver is just a man born too late and doomed to live a life he is not fond of. The last poem, The Growth of Lorraine, has a shift from part I to part II. The speaker of the poem, presumably a friend of Lorraine, listens as she tells him her thoughts on life and how some people are born fortunate while others aren’t. She continues to talk about her being the type of person who isn’t born fortunate
creating a saddening mood leaving the reader curious as to what she means by “I’m going to the devil” (14). The mood then shifts as the speaker begins to read the note left by Lorraine where she speaks of a drink that will kill and makes an eerie comment about how intriguing it is that just one drop will kill her. The mood now is eerie and gloomy and gives a feeling of emptiness knowing Lorraine is now dead and all that is left is a letter she wrote to remember her by. In all three poems, Robinson uses shifts to create a depressing and gloomy ending leaving an impression on the reader and causing them to feel empathy for the characters in his works. Edwin Arlington Robinson was able to portray the same theme of one’s fate being disliked through Ricahrd Cory, The Growth of Lorraine, and Miniver Cheevy. He did this by employing the same writing technique within each poem to give them all a dreary feeling by the last stanza.