Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Persistent Poet Suicide, alcoholism, neglect, animosity, poverty. When first viewing these words,; the connection to hopelessness is made, as the victim is often prone to failure and isolation. Edwin Arlington Robinson, a notable writer of the 20th century, associates with these ideas throughout his time served in events leading to the Great Depression. A major crisis includes the Panic of 1893, the cause of a quick spread of poverty all across the country and economy, while nearly "500 bank closures and 16,000 business failures result in the first year of the depression" (Depression of 1893). The declining society was a trigger to a series of tragedies that influenced Robinson's life and poetry. Robinson is …show more content…
Herman Robinson suffered heavy losses in business, causing him to turn to alcohol for support. Dean, his other brother, breaks under the pressure of tasks in the medical field and also finds comfort in drinking, as he later commits suicide. In 1896, his mother dies of diptheria, and a couple of years later Herman dies of alcoholism (Lewis 3). All of these factors contribute to Robinson's general overall dislike of life; he was an unhappy man facing the enduring hardships of poverty. Poverty had a very damaging effect on Robinson; some of his battles consist of long years of public indifference, a source of pain that led him to the brink of suicide (Edwin Arlington Robinson 2) and his reliance of heavy drinking during due to physical and mental exhaustion (Anderson 88). Regardless of the threat of failure following Edwin, as he began with minimal achievements in his works, Robinson chose to continue writing in a state of poverty. He developed a recurrent fictional setting, Tilbury Town, which holds real experiences of troubled residents in his hometown Gardner. Although it took much dedication, Robinson succeeds …show more content…
James Dickey observes,"No poet ever understood loneliness or separateness better than Robinson or knew the self-consuming furnace that the brain can become in isolation, the suicidal hellishness of it”(1). Initially, Robinson’s work suggests that loneliness is an inescapable separation from one another (Sou 2698). For instance, in his famous “Richard Cory”, a high class, wealthy man is presented as an outcast of his community, and because of his isolation, he decides to commit suicide. Along with the topic of suicide, the poem “Luke Havergal” portrays a suicidal mood brought on by the loss of a lover, as his secluded state becomes overwhelming, wishing that he can follow his lover’s path. In relation to E.A. Robinson’s economic position at the time, it is significant to note that “those living below the poverty line are three times more likely to have serious psychological distress as compared to those living above the poverty level”(Poverty 1). In Richard Cory’s case, the setting refers to the condition of the Depression of 1893, as the townspeople distance themselves because of their economic differences. Poverty is a major cause of social tensions and threatens to divide a nation because of the issue of income inequalities (Poverty 2). Although his name hints wealthiness, the noble man was not rich in communal connections, resulting to the end