CONCEPTS OF FAILURE IN EDWIN ARLINGTON

ROBINSON'S LONGER POEMS

APPROVED:

Major

Minor Professor

g.S. tuh^ Directorector ooFtKf tftiee DeDepartmeni t of English

). /c?r^J!rv~**O Dean'of the Graduate School CONCEPTS OF FAILURE IN EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON'S LONGER POEMS

THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

BY

Eromaline T. Williams, B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1970 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I. CONCEPTS OF FAILURE IN BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE 1 II. FAILURE IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS 19 III. FAILURE IN MATERIAL SUCCESS Or IN PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY 74 IV. THE THEME OF FAILURE IN THE POETRY OF ROBINSON: A RESUME" 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY 136.

in CHAPTER I

CONCEPTS OF FAILURE

IN BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Edwin Arlington Robinson, an American poet who lived

during the last half of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth century, enjoys today a major place

among American poets. On one hand he has been compared favor-

ably to poets of the nineteenth century such as Ralph Waldo

Emerson, whose work Robinson greatly admired, Walt Whitman,

and Emily Dickinson, and on the other hand to the major poets

of the early twentieth century such as Robert Frost and T. S.

Eliot.* Although Robinson shares with all of these some similarity in either thought or poetic style, he was essen-

tially an individual poet who determined his own style and

areas of emphasis. He created many unforgettable characters

and he was most concerned with the manner in which these char-

acters dealt with the problems of human existence.

Failure is one of the central themes in the poetry of

Robinson. It pervades both his major and minor works and the poems of his youth as well as the poems of his more mature

years. Of course the aspects of failure vary as Robinson

examines failure in different situations and in individual

^Wallace L. Anderson, Edwin Arlington Robinson; A Critical Introduction (Boston, 1967), p. 153.

1 characters. However, failure in general can never be accepted casually by the one failing, and Robinson implies that it should not be taken lightly or easily condemned by the observer.

Robinson looks askance at the world's standards of success and failure, which are often based on social or material values, and establishes standards of success and failure on a more per- sonal and more spiritual scale. In its complexity, failure can defeat but it can also ennoble. The valid test of whether or not a person has failed is not an external test but an internal test including the character's reaction to failure.

E. A. Robinson was familiar with failure most of his life.

His family endured failure many times. The youngest of three sons, Robinson watched his oldest brother, Dean, apparently climbing toward the pinnacle of success, fail in health and spirit. Dean, educated to become a doctor, and graduated cum 2 laude from medical school, with a penchant for medical research, was thwarted in his first career choice by the desire of his 3 father that he become a practicing physician. Unable to main- tain good health in the rigorous profession of country doctor, Dean became addicted to morphine and eventually to alcohol as 4 well. He returned to the family home in Gardiner, Maine, when

2 Ibid., p. 42. 3 Chard Powers Smith, Where the Light Falls: A Portrait of the Act (New Yorl;, 1965), p. 73u 4 Yvor Winters, Edwin Arlington Robinson (Norfolk, Conn., 1946), p. 2. he was twenty-nine after a brief practice.5 There he remained until his death (presumed a suicide from overdoses of morphine)® thirteen years later. The oldest son had been the first hope of the family. After Dean failed to accomplish anything of merit, Robinson's father decided against any lornusl education for his other sons. Dean was twelve years older than Edwin and he was greatly admired by his youngest brother as they were similar in temperament and enjoyed studious pursuits. To Edwin

Robinson fell the task of looking after his older brother while he grew steadily worse, often pacing the floor and moaning for hours7 and eventually bedridden and delirious.® There was no known cure for morphine addiction in Gardiner, Maine, in the

late ISOO's, and though Dean underwent treatment in an institu-

tion three different times, he could never overcome his addic-

tion to drugs. Robinson, therefore, made certain that his

brother was supplied with morphine and alcohol as he needed

them.

After Dean's failure, the second son, Herman, became the

family's hope. Herman's talents were in business as were his

father's, and he assumed the responsibility of the family's

investments. Herman, confident in his own visions of success,

5Emery Neff, Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York, 1948), p. 9.

®Smith, p. 185.

7Ibid., p. 156. 8Anderson, p. 54. invested the Robinson family money and encouraged others to

invest in land and improvements in St. Louis and in the West.

Unfortunately for Herman and his fellow investors, the United

States was entering a period of recession called the "Panic 9 of '93."' Herman and his friends lost their money. In his discouragement and feeling of guilt, Herman not only lost the family fortune, he also lost himself and became an alco- 10 holic.

For some time E. A. Robinson assumed most of the respon- sibility for the household, which included Dean, his mother, Herman, Herman's wife, Stoma, and their three young daughters, but Herman eventually became jealous of his brother's rela- tionship with his wife and asked him to leave the family 11 home. Herman and Emma became further estranged as the years passed when Herman became more "alcoholic, bitter, jealous, 12 and . . . fiendish." Having used all of the money from the

family estate and the sale of the family home, and no longer

living with his wife and daughters, Herman was penniless.

Robinson came to his and Emma's aid in 1905 by agreeing to share the money he would earn in the Custom House job procured 13 for him by President Theodore Roosevelt. Eventually Herman

9 Ibid., p. 49. 10 Smith, p. 273.

^1lbid., pp. 171-172.

12Ibid., p. 200.

13Ibid.. pp. 217-218. conquered his problem with alcohol but by that time he had been stricken with tuberculosis. He died in 1909 at the age of forty-four.

Before the deaths of his two brothers, both of the

Robinson parents had died. The sons watched their father's

rational and physical powers slowly fail. To Robinson fell

the task of entertaining and caring for his dying father.

Later, alone, the brothers took care of and then buried their 14 mother, who had contracted black diphtheria. The people

in Gardiner, including the doctor, minister, and mortician,

refused to help them for fear of contracting the disease 15 themselves. Heedless to say, as S. A. Robinson observed his family

fail, he became very much aware of failure and all its

nuances. Many of his associates were failures of one kind

or another. Yvor Winters, one of his biographers and critics,

has written: He was surrounded by a group of incomplete geniuses, the debris of the intellectual life which one can meet in any large city in any period; such people are failures and are likely to be weak and somewhat foolish, but they sometimes have the perception and intelligence to recognize and to entertain a distinguished man, and in a worjg of successful mediocrity such ability deserves respect.

14 Winters, p. 6. "^Hoyt C. Franchere, Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York, 1968), p. 61.

16Winters, pp. 6-7. 6

Most of these friends lived in New York, but even in Gardiner

Robinson often associated with those who had failed in one way or another. Chard Powers Smith, another biographer, has pointed out that Dr. Schumann, who introduced Robinson to

"creative literary life, . . . had been spoiled by money, didn't practice his profession, was a roughneck in conver- sation, more or less of an alcoholic, and was always getting 17 into or out of 'engagements'." In Smith's opinion, Dr. 18 Schumann was a "perfect Robinsonian failure." Of course one must include Alfred Hyman Louis, one of Robinson's

New York friends, in the group of friends who were failures.

According to Hoyt C. Franchere, Louis claimed to have been acquainted with most important literary figures in England and the United States. He had practiced many professions, 19 having been "lawyer, poet, musician, prophet." He was reputedly a stirring conversationalist who inspired others by his ideas. When Robinson knew him, he was penniless and starving, and he was kept alive only through gifts from friends. He became part of the "failure-hero" of Captain 20 Craig. 17 Smith, p. 84.

18Ibid. 19 Franchere, p. 41. 20 Ibid., p. 40. External failure or failure that he could see in both

family and friends was not Robinson's only concern. Perhaps most important in developing his concepts of failure were

his feelings about his own apparent failure. He had chosen

a profession hardly approved in Gardiner, Maine. He was

concerned about what the townspeople thought of him, for in

a letter to his friend Harry De Forest Smith in 1893, he

wrote:

I have nothing in particular to say except that it is rather lonesome here without you, and on dark, dull Sundays like this I find it hard to be cheerful and optimistic, and everything else that a useful man should be in order to fill his place in nature to the satisfaction of himself and his dear friends who feel so much for his welfare. I am half afraid that my "dear friends" here in Gardiner will be disappointed in me if I do not do something before long, but somehow I don't care half as much about the matter as X ought. One of my greatest misfortunes is the total inability to admire the so called successful men who are pointed out to poor devils like me as examples for me to follow and revere. If Merchant A and Barrister B are put here as 'examples to mortals,' I am afraid I shall always stand in the shadow as one of Omar's broken pots.2i

Robinson was thankful that his father, who had accented

practicality in choosing professions, died before he realized 22 the profession his youngest son would follow. He never

liked any kind of "practical" work. In Gardiner he occa-

sionally accepted odd jobs for short periods of time. He 91 Edwin Arlington Robinson, Untriangulated Stars: Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson to Harry D¥ Forest Smith, 1890-19037 edited by Denham~Sutclif fe (CambricTge1947) , p. 107, 22Smith, p. 74. 8

wrote to his friend Harry Smith concerning a surveying job, "I shall probably outgrow this idea, but until I do, I shall labor quite contented under the delusion that there is some- thing to life outside of 'business,' Business be damned."^3 Robinson also worked as a time-keeper on a subway construction job and as a clerk in the office of the president of Harvard. Robinson was awarded a sinecure by President Theodore Roosevelt which lasted for four years until Taft was elected in 1909, whereupon the Custom House's new administration required that the poet perform the actual work of the job and he had to resign because he did not know what the position entailedLouis Coxe and others have written that Robinson was so poor that he often did not have proper food or clothing.^ He received financial help from friends until 1927, when at age forty-two he finally became self-supporting. There is little question that his failure to support himself financially disturbed Robinson. In his letters to his friend Edith Brower, he mentioned his failure often. In June of 1898 he wrote: It is bad to prove such a miserable disappointment to one's friends—there is no need of expecting them, or even you, to put the world away altogether—but I don't seem to see my way to anything better unless it be murderously at the expense of the other thing— the real thing—as to make it worse than penal ser- vitude ,

^Robinson, Untriangulated Stars, p. 4. 24Winters , p. 10. ^Louis Coxe, Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Life of Poetry (New York, 1969), p. 14. na ^"Edwin Arlington Robinson, Edwin Arlington Robinson's Letters to Edith Brower, edited by Richard Cary (Cambridge, 1968) . o. 7W. 9

His material failure was not Robinson's major concern. Of greater importance was his failure to gain recognition as a poet. No matter what he did, he could not seem to please his editors.^ Friends, John Hays Gardiner and Laura H, Richards, had underwritten the cost to have Captain Craig published in 1902, and another friend, William E. Butler, had financed the publication of The Children of the Night Robinson's poetic friends, particularly William Vaughn Moody, seemed to have little trouble having their work published. In fact, Moody's outstanding success, four major works pub- lished in one year, only made Robinson feel his failure more severely. In October 1910 Robinson managed to get The Town Down the River published but it also failed to bring him either recognition or financial solvency. He tried to write both novels and plays but could not succeed in writing either. Finally he returned to writing poetry and explained to his friend George Burnham: The powers that pull the strings are not going to let me write popular plays. I'm sorry, for I wanted to make some money; but instead of doing that I've got to make some more poetry. This will be distressing news to you, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it ... . Sometimes I almost hope that I have had my last dream of independence and respect- ability, for the waking up hurts more and more as I get to be an old man.^9

^Anderson, p. 88. 28Ibid., pp. 86-87. 29Smith, pp. 237-238. 10

Eventually E. A. Robinson did succeed in publishing his work, receiving critical recognition, public popularity for some of his poems, and financial security, but the years of failure—his own and that of friends and family—were an almost constant theme in his poetry.

Critics of Edwin Arlington Robinson's poetry have been aware of his ideas concerning failure and success. Yvor Winters, whose criticism of Robinson's poetry was published in 1946, does not treat the failure theme separately even though he mentions it several times as he discusses individual poems. He admits that often a Robinsonian character is a near genius—"an especially unfortunate type of failure ... a somewhat unpleasant specine n."30 He believes that failure was carried much too far in Amaranth to the point of obsession rather than of balanced judgment. Winters uses most of his book telling the story of each poem and criticizing the style. He is unhappy with the longer poems in general31 and with

32 Robinson's "incomplete and contradictory" thought. ne does not think that Robinson's greatness lies in philosophical thought and sees Captain Craig as a long character sketch of a "help- less failure" treated in an ironic manner.33

30winters, p. 51. 31Ibid., p. 97.

32lbid., p. 58.

33Ibid., pp. 97-98. 11

In 1952 Ellsworth Barnard published a more extensive criticism of Robinson's work. With a patience lacking in

Winter's criticism, Barnard carefully examined Robinson's ideas of failure. He acknowledges that creation of character was of prime importance in Robinson's poems. Though each character 34 enjoys an "objective existence" and "identity of his own,"

Barnard believes that there are certain similarities between groups of characters in regard to failure. Barnard's first group includes persons "who are failures in the eyes of the 35 world but not ... in the eyes of God." These characters are usually poor as far as material things are considered.

However, in spite of their failures, they believe that their lives have counted for something good or for some special purpose. In this group Barnard includes Captain Craig,

Fernando Nash, Cavender, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Fargo.

These characters are finally victorious even though they bflieve that they have betrayed their better selves. Spiritual 36 values triumph over physical values. A second group of failures includes those whose lives are "outwardly illustrious 37 but inwardly empty." Nightingale and Matthias are two members of this group according to Barnard. In this group are 34 Ellsworth Barnard, Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Critical Study (New York, 1952), p. 122. 35Ibid.

36-.,. , 10, Ibxd., p. 124. •57 Ibid., p. 127. 12 found men who are born to greatness or those who easily become wealthy. They are men who are greatly admired or feared by the general public because of their position and power. They have been tempted by their power to be cruel to other, less powerful, men. Characters in this group are saved from com- plete failure when events in their lives deprive them of the satisfaction they have enjoyed. This causes them to become 38 aware of the general human condition. In the same group because they are wealthy or possess great power are King Arthur and King Jasper. These two enjoy no redemption because they 39 are never able to resist the corruption of power. In the same group but with yet another result are those characters who are wealthy and respected but who can still find no joy

in life, such as Richard Cory, and those who are wealthy or talented but see the hollowness of their lives. These last men with an "incapacity for illusion" include Tasker Horcross 40 and William Shakespeare.

A third group of failures, according to Barnard, is comprised of those who experience neither material nor spiritual success. Characters in this group possess no special

talent nor do they possess material wealth. The only event 38 Ibid., p. 127. 39Ibid. 40 Ibid., pp. 129-130. 13

41 which elevates them to the attention of others is death.

A fourth group of failures is composed of characters whose 42 lives are "distinguished by some ironic incongruity."

With these characters, the dreams of what they should accom- plish far outdistance what in fact they do accomplish.

Related to this group are those who dream great dreams but fritter away their lives with trivial activities. A fifth group of failures is comprised of characters whose "promise 43 is unfullfilled or talent is misapplied." Since these characters have no saving grace, they lose themselves and travel the road of irretrievable ruin.

Ellsworth Barnard is the only major critic of Robinson's poetry to treat failure in so extensive and objective a manner. Even though he has grouped the failures, he is care- ful to point out that the characters are individuals and fail as individuals.

In contrast to Barnard's work is the critical biography of Robinson published in 1965 by a former friend of the poet,

Chard Powers Smith. Using new sources unavailable at the time to others, Smith goes to great lengths to connect failure in the Robinson poetry to failure in Robinson's own life and the lives of his family and friends. The eldest brother,

41Ibid., pp. 130-132.

42Ibid., p. 132.

43Ibid., p. 133. 14

Dean, becomes the sensitive and intelligent hero. Smith believes that Dean was celebrated in "The Pilot," "The Dark

Horse," "Calvary," and also contributed to characters and minds of Captain Craig, Tasker Norcross, and Garth in 44 "Matthias at the Door." Herman, who became a popular, worldly success before he became a failure, exists in poetry in Richard Cory, the young Flamraonde, Gawaine, Roman Bartholow,

Tristram, and in a more villainous mood in "The Night Before," "Eros Turannos," and "London Bridge." He was the brother in

"The Miracle," Bewick Finzer, Bokardo, Avon, Cavender, Nightin- 45 gale, and Matthias. Smith is saying that the Robinson brothers became archetypes in E. A. Robinson's mind for most of the failures in the poems. Not only does Smith see the brothers playing major roles in Robinson's poems; he also sees events in the smallest detail being used. Thus Herman's failure to create an empire in St. Louis provides a proto- 46 type for the failure of Camelot. The waves below the summer cottage of Robinson's youth become "Nightingale's 'embittered sea."'47

Smith believes that Emma, Herman's wife, was one of the dominating human influences in Robinson's poetry and life.

He has written, "Throughout that lifetime she remained, with 44 Smith, pp. 72-73. 4 5 Ibid.« pp. 74-75. 46 Ibid., p. 83. 47 Ibid., p. 90. 15

48 few and brief hiatuses, his central human preoccupation."

Smith believes that Robinson's biographical poetry contains a record of his changing perceptions of how Emma felt toward him and toward the third member of the triangle, Herman.

He suggests that most of the women in E. A. Robinson's works are Emma in different guises and disguises. Thus there is a physical portrait of her as the dark Isolt in Tristram, a picture of her self-sacrificing nobility in Lancelot, her conflict between love and loyalty in Cavender's House, her sense of intellectual inadequacy in Roman Bartholow, and her lifelong love of E. A. or "E. A.'s presumption of it" in 49 Talifer. The failure in love relationships in thiee ipoem s 50 are thus those of Emma, Herman, and E. A. Robinson.

Robinson's introduction of Emma to Herman becomes Lancelot bringing Guinevere to King Arthur and Tristram bringing Isolt 51 to King Mark. Herman's seeking Emma on a physical rather than a spiritual level becomes a symbol of "all worldly men 52 who live without imagination in the outer world." Smith connects the Robinson failures to actual events in Robinson's life more closely than any other author. Though some have 48 Ibid., P. 93. 49 Ibid., P. 94. 50 Ibid., P. 98. 51 Ibid., P. 97. 52 Ibid., P. 98. 16

found fault with the documentation of his material, much of

it coming from personal interviews with relatives and friends of Robinson, he is convincing, and it is doubtful that many will study the Robinson failures without giving some attention

to Smith's work.

One of the most recent books of criticism of Robinson's poetry was published in 1967 by Wallace L. Anderson. He

agrees that success-failure was a major theme in Robinson's work. However, he seems to put failure under the category of a Light-Dark symbolism. He states that Light and Dark occur in one form or another more than five hundred times

in Robinson's work. This symbolism carries "the burden of 53 his idealism and the theme of self-knowledge." Anderson states that there are many variations of the Light and Dark symbolism on some type of continuous scale, thus allowing

for many different degrees of each. Variations are from the spiritual to the material, from wisdom to ignorance, and

from positive to negative. In its highest sense the Light retains a cosmic significance. In order to understand the

Light, a character must know and understand himself. Self- knowledge will lead to right living and lack of self-knowledge will lead to failure. 53 Anderson, p. 120. 17

A still more recent book than Anderson's on Robinson and his work was published by Hoyt C. Franchere in 1968.

Franchere also discusses failure as a major theme in Robin- son's poetry. He believes that Robinson devoted much of his writing to failure perhaps because he was obsessed by his own failure to gain recognition of his work and was deeply concerned with the failure of his two brothers. How- ever, Franchere goes further than connecting failure with the poet's life. He divides the failures into two categories,

In the first category he places the failures who are beyond redemption—those who do not have the character to regain favor with men or the inner strength to correct their fail- ure or lessen their suffering. In the second category,

Franchere places the failure redeemed. This character is saved in one way or another because he gains self-realization 54 or experiences some inner change in his attitude or values.

Franchere does not believe that Robinson ever developed a systematic philosophy of failure. He simply recognized that there were many failures in the world who could never gain self-realization through self-knowledge. He did not condemn 55 anyone for his failure.

Critics and biographers have recognized the importance of failure and its many aspects in the life and poetry of 54 Franchere, p. 85.

55Ibid., p. 99. 18

JE. A. Robinson. For a more complete idea of how Robinson dealt with concepts of failure, it is best to study the poetry itself. CHAPTER II

FAILURE IN PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Failure occurs in a multitude of forms in the longer poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson. Gabrielle, wife of Roman Bartholow, unintelligibly wastes her life. Fernando Nash in The Man Who

Died Twice cannot use his great talents constructively. Captain

Craig cannot earn enough money to feed himself and he cannot beg. Neither Arthur nor Lancelot nor Merlin sees the Grail.

Tristram gives up a promising career as prince and future king.

Failure is frequent in Robinson's longer poems, but one must be careful in differentiating among those who fail, for failure can occur in different areas of a person's life. In

Robinson's major works, there are essentially two areas in which a character may fail. These are the worldly and the per- sonal.

The worldly realm is that in which a character is most involved with his fellow men. His success or failure is measured against public standards generally accepted by the society in which he lives. The standards are of course momentary and they are malleable by circumstance. Nevertheless, if a character is to succeed on a worldly level, he must contend for his success in at least one of several realms—the monetary, the social, the professional, or the artistic. If a character fails in one

19 20 of these areas, the men about him are aware of his failure because the worldly level is essentially a public level.

Many of Robinson's characters are actually quite successful on the worldly level. Both Malory and Nightingale in The Glory of the Nightingales have earned a degree of wealth, respect in their professions, a place of honor in society. Roman Bartholow,

Cavender, and Matthias have earned very comfortable standards of living. Merlin is a respected seer. King Arthur is a crea- tive ruler. However, even though these characters are successful on the worldly level, one cannot call them complete successes.

For while they have been succeeding on the worldly level, they have been failing in one way or another on the personal level.

It is on the personal level that a man must deal with him- self. This is the private level in which a man chooses to struggle or not to struggle with his fear, his greed, his jealousy, his sense of honor, his ideals of courage and truth. Few witness his efforts, his success, or his failure. Often only the narra- tor of the poem recognizes the struggle in which the character has been involved. If there has been no struggle, no effort to confront truth, no effort to perfect character, no effort to gain insight into one's own problems or the problems of others, then the character has failed on the personal level.

It is quite possible for a character in Robinson's longer poems to fail on one level and succeed on the other. Few characters become total successes. The world has a tendency to 21

evaluate a person on the worldly level only. Robinson's poems illustrate the idea that man should be considered on the personal level also, for here his victory or his defeat may be greater than his success or lack of success on the worldly level.

Failure occurs in many forms, on different levels of a character's existence, and it affects characters in various ways. It may weaken as it weakened King Arthur. It may psychologically cripple as it crippled Cavender. It may destroy life as it destroyed Gabrielle's. But failure may have positive effects as well as negative. It may bring wisdom as it did to Captain Craig and to Roman Bartholow. It may ennoble as it did ennoble Merlin. It may bring opportunity for renewed life as it did to Fargo in Amaranth, Depending on the individual who fails, failure may have as many effects as it has forms, regardless of the level on which it occurs.

Nowhere is the effect of success or failure so profound as it is in the realm of personal relationships. Whatever occurs in this realm is usually on the private level of a person's existence. People may seem to be happily married or seem to be loyal friends to an observer. The true relationship, how- ever, is often known only by the participants.

All of Robinson's longer poems are about people. Many of the poems are about failures in human relationships. There are two basic types of human relationships that Robinson considers in his major works—friendship and love. Friendship in Robinson's poems is a very special relationship existing between men. It 22 can be as important as love and is often more important. A good friendship can fail because two men covet the same woman, because two men do not treat each other honorably, because two men forget to value their friendship. A friendship is not something casual. It is a relationship in which two men know each other intimately. Usually it has developed over a number of years. Friendship does not occur between a man and a woman in the longer pooms. When a relationship does develop between a man and a woman, it is called love. Lancelot is a poem in which both love and friendship are important. Lancelot begins with a conversation about friendship. Gawaine is offering to shake hands with his friend, Lancelot. Lancelot, doubtful that he has any friends left, hesitates.1 Gawaine recalls the length of time the two of them have been friends and the friendship of their fathers before them. Finally, Lancelot does shake Gawaine's hand. The failure of Lancelot in friendship is a recurring theme throughout the poem. He is at a point where he does not trust anyone. He tells Guinevere that Gawaine will be his friend only 2 until Lancelot crosses him. In spite of this pessimistic pre- diction on Lancelot's part, it is Gawaine who makes an attempt to warn Lancelot and Guinevere that their rendezvous has been "^Edwin Arlington Robinson, Collected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York, 1966), p. 365. 2Ibid., p. 372. 23

O discovered. However, when Lancelot kills his friends Gareth and Gaheris, he strikes a nearly fatal blow to his friendship with their brother, Gawaine. In the poem Robinson relates how Lancelot flees from Came- lot to Joyous Gard with Guinevere after rescuing her from the penal fire. One of his principal regrets and one of the prin- cipal reasons for hesitancy in fighting Arthur and Gawaine are his remorse concerning his killing of his two friends. He tells Guinevere: Say, then, you had split The uncovered heads of two men with an axe, Not knowing whose heads—if that's a palliation— And seen their brains fly out and splash the ground As they were common offal, and then learned That you had butchered Gaheris and Gareth— Gareth, who had for me a greater love Than any that has ever trod the ways Of a gross world that early would have crushed him,— Even you, in your quick fever of dispatch, Might hesitate before you drew the blood Of him that was their brother and my friend.'* Lancelot's failure to remain friends with Gawaine haunts him. As he tries to decide what course of action he must take, he says to himself, "If I kill him gawaine], I may as well kill myself;/ And I have killed his brothers.Concerned about his relationship with both Gawaine and King Arthur and distressed by the continuing war, Lancelot returns Guinevere to Camelot. However, Lancelot does not find Gawaine in a forgiving mood and the war continues.

3Ibid., p. 407. ^Ibid. 5Ibid., p. 427. 24

Finally the day comes when King Arthur realizes that Modred, his illegitimate son, is trying to overthrow him in Britain 6 while he fights in France. It is Gawaine who sends the message of truce to Lancelot. Lancelot realizes that Gawaine is trying to tell him that war between them is an "old war," and the hate 7 between them is an "old hate."

Lancelot thinks a long time about whether or not he should try to see Gawaine. He realizes that Gawaine has been left behind by the other soldiers. He does not know whether or not

Gawaine still wishes to kill him. In spite of some misgivings, he decides to try to see his friend. He goes to his tent only to find that his friend is dying.

Gawaine greets Lancelot in a forgiving mood. He finally realizes that if he had been Lancelot, he would have killed his friend instead of only injuring him. Lancelot assures

Gawaine that he was only trying to defend himself when he inflicted this final injury on Gawaine. He says:

"May God forgive, ... I did it for my life, Not yours."

And Gawaine answers;

I know, but I was after yours; Had I been Lancelot, and you Gawaine, 6 You might be dead.® Ibid., p. 428.

7Ibid.

8Ibid., p. 430. 25

Gawaine now wonders aloud to Lancelot about the reasons

Lancelot could not have killed Modred, also, and so have been 9 responsible for all five brothers' deaths. He urges Lancelot to do what he can to help King Arthur by fighting for him.

After forgiving Lancelot and after apologizing for his own lack of vision, Gawaine dies.

More obvious than his failure in friendship with Gawaine,

Gareth, and Gaheris is Lancelot's failure in friendship with

King Arthur. In the first part of the poem, Lancelot tells

Guinevere that he knew when he was sent by Arthur to bring her to Camelot he would be disloyal to the King. He tells Guinevere that during the journey he reminded himself to remember his friend: But I thought once again, to make myself Believe a silent lie, 'God save the King' . . ^ I saw your face, and there were no more kings. u This act of dishonor disturbs Lancelot even before he and

Guinevere have been forced to flee from Camelot. He asks himself

And who is he? Who is this Lancelot that has betrayed His King, and served him with a cankered honor?11

Lancelot continues to voice regret for his conduct throughout the poem. His treatment of King Arthur as well as his treatment

9Ibid., p. 431.

10Ibid., p. 376.

11Ibid., p. 383. 26 of Gawaine inhibits his fighting at Joyous Gard. He admonishes

Guinevere:

Had he made A knight of you, scrolling your name with his Among the first of men—and in his love Inveterately the first—and had you then Betrayed his fame and honor to the dust That now is choking him, you might in time— You might, I say—to my degree succumb.

Of course Lancelot's falseness is bitterly felt by King

Arthur. He tells Bedivere and Gawaine that he searched "all chivalry" to find one true knight and friend. From all the 13 possible candidates, he selected Lancelot. King Arthur seems as remorseful over the failure of the friendship as he is remorseful over the loss of the Queen,

Lancelot does what he can to mend his friendship with

King Arthur. His first move in this direction is to return 14 Guinevere to Camelot. He hopes that her return will end the fighting. King Arthur banishes him from Camelot and the war continues. However, in his final meeting with Lancelot,

Gawaine tells him that King Arthur needs him more than he needs any other person. Gawaine says: The King, my uncle, Has had for all his life so brave a diet Of miracles, that his new fare before him Of late has ailed him strangely; and of all

12 Ibid., pp. 407-408. 13 Ibid., p. 390. 14. Ibid., p. 427. 27

Who loved him once he needs you now the most— Though he would not sOjmuch as whisper this To me or to my shadow.

Lancelot believes Gawaine. He raises an array to help King Arthur.

However, by the time Lancelot's army reaches the coast of France X0 both King Arthur and Modred are dead, each killed by the other.

Lancelot is not only a tale of friendship failing, it is also a story of love failure. There are two love relationships which fail in the poem. One is between Guinevere and King

Arthur; the other is between Guinevere and Lancelot.

In the beginning, the alliance between King Arthur and

Guinevere was a political alliance. King Arthur, having made arrangements with the French king, Leodogran, sent for his daughter, 17 Guinevere. King Arthur loved his young queen. However, Guinevere tells Lancelot:

... he [king Arthu£l bought me with a name Too large for my king-father to relinquish— Though I prayed him, and I prayed God aloud, To spare that crown. ®

Though Guinevere never truly loved King Arthur, King Arthur was unaware of her feelings. She pretended to return his love and he believed that she loved him. Thus, he is almost destroyed by the news of Guinevere's affair with Lancelot. After being

15Xbld., P. 431.

16Ibid., P. 436.

Ibid., P. 376. 18.,., Ibxd., P. 424. 28

told that Guinevere and Lancelot have been discovered together, he has to be physically helped into his chair.19 He tells his friends, Gawaine and Bedivere, that he searched the world to 20 find "the fairest woman" to be his queen. He admits that 91 Merlin warned him about "The Love that never was . . . How- ever, Arthur refused to listen to Merlin at the time. Now Arthur seeks revenge for Lancelot's act as well as Guinevere's. He says: . , .We'll have him here anon, And we shall feed him also to the fire. There are too many faggots lying cold That might as well be cleansing, for our good, A few deferred infections of our state That honor should no longer look upon. 2 King Arthur's only thought now is to punish the two he believes have wronged him. He is tortured by memories of Guinevere's beauty. Then he thinks of all that beauty being burned according to his own command. He tries to shield him- self from his thoughts of Guinevere burning. He exclaims: I'll put clouts on my eyes, and I'll not see it*. Her face, and hands, and little small white feet, And all her shining hair and her warm body— No—for the love of God, no!—it's alive'. She's all alive, and they are burning her— The Queen—the love—the love that never was. At last Arthur realizes that he is punishing Guinevere far more severely than she deserves. He tells himself, "She

19Ibid., p. 389. 2QIbid., p. 391. 21Ibid. 22Ibid. 23Ibid., p. 392. 29

24 never did enough to make me see her/ Like that . . . When

Lucan rushes in with the message of the Queen's rescue, the King 25 is grateful to Lancelot for halting his revengeful execution.

Arthur's failure has been twofold. He has failed to remember that he himself once sired a son by King Lot's wife. There was no talk then of burning for either of them. His own behavior does not make Guinevere's more pardonable, but he evidently pardoned himself for his transgression. His second failure has been in his love for Guinevere. Had Arthur's love been true, he would have considered Guinevere's feelings as well as his own.

The fire has already been lit before he ever thinks of how se- verely he is humiliating as well as punishing his once faithful wife. He has taken advantage of his kingly position to destroy his wife. Certainly not all men in Camelot could have had their wives burned simply because the wives were unfaithful to them.

At last Arthur is thankful that in his anger he was unable to 26 destroy Guinevere.

The second love relationship to fail is that between Lancelot and Guinevere. Like all love stories, Lancelot's had a beginning.

According to the knight himself, his love for Guinevere began the moment he saw her. He had been sent by King Arthur to bring 24 Ibid.

25Ibid., p. 396.

26Ibid., p. 400. 30

Guinevere to Camelot. She was to be Arthur's bride. Lancelot had not planned to fall in love with Guinevere, but he tells her:

But I thought once again, to make myself Believe a silent lie, 'God save the King' . . I saw your face, and there were no more kings.

Unfortunately for Lancelot, there was still very much a king, and that king was Arthur, his best friend.

When the poem begins, Lancelot's love for Guinevere is already ebbing. He still thinks of her as "his inventory of the world/ That he must lose, or suffer to be lost/ For love of 28 her ..." but he realizes that he must lose either Guinevere or his world and he has chosen to lose Guinevere. He is pre- paring to leave. The love that consumed him in the beginning has not endured.

There are several reasons why Lancelot's love has failed.

First there is the circumstance of Guinevere being Arthur's wife.

Lancelot asks himself:

Who is this Lancelot that has betrayed „q His king, and served him with a cankered honor? He knows that the King is still unaware of his love for

Guinevere even though to the rest of Camelot the matter is the subject of common gossip.

97 Ibid., p. 376.

28Ibid., p. 371.

29Ibid., p. 383. 31

The gossip is another circumstance which disturbs Lancelot. He believes everyone is whispering behind his back. He no longer trusts anyone. He does not trust even Gawaine. He almost refuses 30 to shake hands with him. Gawaine, who calls the gossip "A O *1 whisper now and then, a chirrup or so/ In corners . . ."ox can- not convince Lancelot that the rumors are of minor consequence. They have tainted his love. Of the gossipers, Modred is the most vocal and the most feared since he would like a share of the queen himself. Lancelot tells Guinevere of Modred. He says: The shape of one infernal foul attendant Will be forever prowling after you, To leer at me like a damngcj thing whipped out Of the last cave in hell.0 Lancelot knows that Modred will betray them to King Arthur as soon as he has proof of any indiscretion on their part. These three circumstances, Lancelot's betrayal of King Arthur's trust, the ugly rumors, and Modred's spying, convince Lancelot that his love for Guinevere is not strong enough to override the world. He tells her: . . . and if I saw you only, I might forego again all other service And leave to Time, who is Love's almoner, The benefaction of what years or days Remaining might be found unchronicled For two that have not always watched or seen The sands of gold that flow for golden hours. If I saw you alone'. But I know now That you are never more to be alone.

30Ibid., p. 366. 31Ibid., p. 368. 32Ibid., pp. 377-378. 33Ibid., p. 377. 32

Lancelot can no longer separate Guinevere from surrounding events and people in his mind. As he fails, his love fails. He has always seen Guinevere as someone free, beautiful, majestic.

He calls her all white and gold.34 Unfortunately, after Lancelot saves Guinevere from the fire, after he kills Gareth and Gaheris, after he is at war with Arthur and Gawaine, Guinevere becomes a 35 different color to him. She becomes all gray. Though he tries,

Lancelot never can see her again as white and gold. He tells her: We children who forget the whips of Time, To live within the hour, are slow to see That all such hours are passing. They were past When you came here with me. Gradually Lancelot's dream of Guinevere is replaced with his dream of a different light. This gleam is a spiritual

Light. The dream of this spiritual Light has caught Lancelot's imagination even before he has left Camelot. He is preparing to leave on his quest before he and Guinevere are discovered together. After he is involved in war with Arthur, Lancelot 37 becomes more absorbed by the Light. Eventually he returns

Guinevere, protesting, to Camelot and goes on his way to seek the Light.

Lancelot can give up Guinevere. His love for her, greatly diminished, is only one aspect of his existence. He approaches

34Ibid., p. 381. 35 Ibid., p. 403.

36*Ibid.: , p. 413. 33

the problem reasonably, seeing that it is not practical for her

to stay at Joyous Gard. Nor is it practical for her to remain 38 in France. She must return to Camelot. He must end the war 39 and continue his search for the Light.

Guinevere, however, experiences great difficulty in letting

Lancelot go. As a woman, she can not have an independent

existence. Her life is inextricably tied to a man's. First

she is a princess, her father's daughter, without the right to 40 select her husband. Second, she is a queen, King Arthur's 41

wife. Third, she is Lancelot's paramour. Since her affair with Lancelot has tainted her as Queen in Arthur's eyes as well

as Camelot's, she has no place to go. She clings to Lancelot.

She approaches her return to Camelot emotionally, seeing it as

a personal rejection of herself. "What are you going to do with 42 me?/ What does a child do with a worn-out doll," she asks

Lancelot. To Guinevere, Lancelot's failing love for her is more

terrible than death: She tells him: When I came here with you, And found those eyes of yours, I could have wished And prayed it were the end of hours, and years. What was it made you save me from the fire, If only out of memories and forebodings To build around my life another fire Of slower faggots?4,1 OO Ibid., p. 426.

39Ibid., p. 427.

40Ibid., p. 414, 41., Ibid.

42 TK4 A 34

Guinevere tries desperately to persuade Lancelot to let them remain together. In answer, he hurts her more deeply by trying to explain that the time of their love has passed. He tells her:

I might be one of those who feed themselves By grace of God, on hopes dryer than hay, Enjoying not what they eat, yet always eating. ^

In spite of Lancelot's explanations, Guinevere can not under- stand his reasoning. She pleads with him:

If I were God . . . I should say, 'Let them be as they have been. A few more years will heap no vast account Against eternity, and all their love Was what I gave them.'

Her prayers futile, Guinevere returns to Camelot, not understanding Lancelot's practical approach to the ending of his love. She fails Lancelot by wishing to hold him "out of

Time" and away from his search for the Light.

Other of Robinson's characters fail in the realm of per- sonal relations. This type of failure is the theme of Avon's

Harvest. Avon's story is admittedly strange. When he was six- teen years old and attending school, a new student enrolled.

Until that time Avon had led a rather normal life. He states;

I was a boy at school, sixteen years old, And on my way, in all appearances, To mark an even-tempered average Among the major mediocrities

44Ibid., p. 417.

45Ibid., p. 420. 35

Who serve and earn with no especial noise Or vast reward. I saw myself, even then, A light for no high shining; and I feared No boy or man—having, in truth, no cause.

Avon continues by describing himself as a person who at that time had no enemies. However, for some reason still unknown to Avon, the new student attached himself to him. From 47 the moment Avon first saw the new student, he was repelled.

He began to despise the newcomer; And how shall I go on To say by what machinery the slow net Of my fantastic and increasing hate Was ever woven as it was around us? I cannot answer; and you need not ask What undulating reptile he was like, For such a worm as I discerned in him Was never yet on earth or in the ocean . . . ° In contrast to Avon's growing hate, the boy's affection for Avon increased. The boy was a friend only to Avon. He would have nothing to do with the other boys in the school.

Avon says of him:

This fellow had no friend, and, as for that, No sign of an apparent need of one, Save always and alone—myself.

The boy gave all of his attention and affection to Avon. At last Avon began to feel pity for the boy. The pity became tolerance, and the tolerance became a type of acceptance. In

46Ibid., pp. 547-548,

47Ibid., p. 548.

48Ibid., p. 549.

49Ibid., p. 552. 36

return, the boy would have died to save Avon's life or so Avon

believes. In truth, it was Avon who had become enslaved to his

new friend. He says:

No, there was nothing right about that fellow; And after twenty years to think of him 1 should be qu^j§e as helpless now to serve him As I was then.'

Eventually Avon's anger accumulated until he struck the

boy for some small offense. Even though the boy was larger

than Avon, instead of striking back, he began to cry. Avon

tells his companion:

. . . They made Me sick, those tears; for I knew, miserably, They were not there for any pain he felt. I do not think he felt the pain at all. He felt the blow . . .Oh, the whole thing was bad-- So bad that even the bleaching suns and rains Of years that wash away to faded lines, Or blot out wholly, the sharp wrongs and ills Of youth, have had no cleansing agent in them To dim the picture.**1

Although Avon was ashamed of his actions, he could not bring

himself to apologize to the boy. The boy in turn vowed

vengeance on Avon. He told Avon that he would always know where he was. From that moment Avon was always haunted by his

former friend. Avon says:

The carriage rolled away with him inside, Leaving the two of us alive together In the same hemisphere to hate each other.

50Ibid., p. 553.

51Ibid., p. 556. 37

I don't know now whether he's here alive,

Or whether he's here dead.52

For years Avon heard from his former friend on every birth- day. They saw each other by chance a few times. Each time one could sense the other's presence before he actually saw the other. The hate in the friend's eyes did not diminish. Avon tells his confidant: Later, in Rome, it was we found each other For the first time since we had been at school. There was the same slow vengeance in his eyes When he saw mine, and there was a vicious twist On his amphibious face that might have been On anything else a smile—rather like one We look for on the stage than in the street.w

The two did not speak. But from that time, Avon always felt the friend's presence as though it were his own shadow.

He tells his listener:

I took my time, Since I was paying for it, and leisurely Went where I would—though never again to move Without him at my elbow or behind me. My shadow of him wherever I found myself, Might horribly as well have been the man— Although I should have been afraid of him No more than of a large worm in a salad.54

The two men traveled freely. Neither had a fixed residence.

Yet they met by chance several times in all parts of the world,

Avon tells his friend about seeing the man in London:

52Ibid., p. 573.

53Ibid., p. 561.

54 Ibid. 38

. . . Yes, there he was again; There were his eyes and the same vengeance in them That I had seen in Rome and twice before— Not mentioning all the time, or most of it, Between the day I struck him and that evening. In spite of the vengeance Avon recognized in the man's

tZQ eyes, he did not yet fear him. He still felt only a strong revulsion for him.^ He detested breathing the same air, or living in the same world with the man. Eventually Avon heard of the friend's death. His name was listed among those killed on the Titanic.5** Avon says: . . . But when I found his name Among the dead, I trusted once the news; And after that there were no messages In ambush waiting for me on my birthday. 9 However, the report was apparently not true, for the friend returns to haunt him. Believing the friend dead, Avon agrees to vacation in the wilderness with a friend named Asher. In the lonely Maine woods he hopes to renew his spirit.®® One evening Asher went with another friend across the lake, leaving Avon all alone. That evening Avon felt fear of his former friend for the first time. He was gazing across the lake when he began to feel "hidden

55Ibid., p. 562. 56Ibid. 57Ibid.

S^Ibid.> p, 563. 59Ibid. 6QIbid., p. 564. 39

61 presences " around him. He realized that soon the presences would blend into one presence—that of his former friend. He says: ... I could not look behind me, Where I could hear that one of them was breathing For, if I did, those others over there Might all see that at last I was afraid.

Avon's fear increased until at last he believed that he was 63 in hell. He could not find any way out. He felt that he was 64 terribly alone for the first time in his life and yet not alone.

He could not do anything to improve his position. He realized, however, what had brought him to this crisis. He tells his 65 listener to "Beware of hate, remorse, and fear ..."

At last Avon decided to move slowly into the cabin. He climbed carefully into bed to wait for what was coming. Finally he fell into a light sleep and when he awoke the man was in the 66 room with him. Avon was too scared to move. He realized then that the man had planned the death notice and subsequent relief for Avon in order to make his next move excruciatingly painful.

Avon says:

. . . There had been so much of waiting, Through all those evil years before my respite— Which now I knew and recognized at last As only his more venomous preparation For the vile end of a deceiving peace—^ 61Ibid., p. 565.

62Ibid.

63Ibid., p. 566.

64 Ibid. 65Ibid. 66 Ibid., p. 569. 67 Ibid., p. 571. 40

Avon lay still, unable to move, and waited for the man to do what he would. He tells his listener:

. . . And I saw His eyes now, as they were for the first time— Aflame as they had never been before With all their gathered vengeance gleaming in them, That would not die behind it. ®

Avon saw the man raise his arm as if to hit him and then

Avon lost consciousness. From that time on Avon lived with fear.

No one knew the reason because he would not tell his story to anyone. However, on the day before his birthday, he decided to reveal his tale to one person. He wondered whether he would receive the annual birthday message. That night the man came into Avon's room, probably through a window since the door was locked "from the inside," and literally scared Avon to death.

The doctor tells Avon's friend:

He died, you know, because he was afraid-- And he had been afraid for a long time. 9

Hot all failures in friendship have such dire results as that of Avon's failure. Some failures simply make bitter enemies of two former friends. Tristram is the next poem in which Robinson dealt with failure in friendship. Again the friendship is between two men—King Mark and his nephew, Tristram.

King Mark is not a man with many friends. He is described in __

69Ibld., p. 573. 41

the poem as "only by kingly circumstance endowed/ With friends 70 enough to make a festival." Perhaps his paucity of friends has caused him to select Tristram as the one to bring Isolt, his

bride, to him. Tristram is his friend and King Mark trusts him.

Tristram, for his part, willingly undertakes the assignment.

He even intercedes with the Irish king, Isolt's father, for 71 Isolt*s hand in marriage with his uncle. Too late he realizes

that he would like Isolt for himself. To make matters worse,

he discovers that Isolt loves him better than she loves his

friend, King Mark; ... He knew too late How one word then would have made arras-rats For her of all his uncles, and all Kings That he might serve with cloudy promises Not weighed until redeemed. As his love for Isolt grows, his hatred for King Mark

increases. Tristram refuses to attend Mark's wedding feast.

King Mark, not understanding Tristram's absence at so important

an occasion, sends Gouvernail, friend of both Tristram and

himself, to bring Tristram to the celebration. Gouvernail

explains to Tristram the King's position: The King knows well what you have done for him, And owns a gratitude beyond the gift Of utterance for the service of your word.

70Ibid., p. 601.

71Ibid.

72Ibid., p. 602. 42

But the King does not know, and cannot know, Your purpose in an act ungenerous, If not unseemly.

Other messengers besides Gouvernail come to urge Tristram*s

attendance at his friend's wedding. When Gouvernail*s excuses

for Tristram's absence anger the King, Queen Morgan comes to 74 urge the young knight to attend. Later Isolt herself comes.

Tristram acknowledges to her that Mark was once his friend;

Because a king was not so much a devil When I was young as not to be a friend, An uncle, and an easy counsellor. '**

However, Tristram's feelings for Isolt have displaced his

friendship for King Mark. Tristram even contemplates killing 76

Mark. Eventually the King himself discovers the rendezvous of Isolt and Tristram. Heartsick at his discovery, Mark questions

Tristram:

Why have you come between me and my Queen, __ Stealing her love as you might steal my gold'. '

Tristram's friendship with King Mark disintegrates to the level of demanding which one has done more for the other. There are debts on each side before not counted by either man because the men were friends.^®

73Ibid., P. 606.

74 Ibid., P. 609.

75Ibid., p. 615.

76Ibid., P. 616.

77 Ibid., P. 632. 78Ibid. 43

Finally the King decides that Tristram may simply be suffering extreme jealousy because Isolt will be Mark's queen:

It may be there's a reptile with green eyes

Arrived for a long feeding on your heart . .

Mark decides to let Tristram live even though he believes

Tristram has acted in a treasonable manner. However, Mark does banish Tristram from Cornwall with a curse:

. . . May all infernal fires attend you— You and your nights and days, and all your dreams Of her that you have not, and shall have never'.80 In his vindictiveness he realizes that Tristram's banishment from Isolt's side is worse punishment for him than would be death. This is the crisis in friendship for the two. When they are together again, Tristram is dead and Mark is in a more forgiving mood. In fact, King Mark has finally become reconciled to the love between Isolt and Tristram.

In the beginning of the poem, Mark seems to be a sinister person, perhaps because he is seen through the eyes of the thwarted lovers, Tristram and Isolt. By the end of the poem,

King Mark has changed. It is true that he has had Isolt brought back from Joyous Gard, where she has been with Tristram. How- ever, he realizes upon her return that he cannot command her love. 70 Ibid., p. 633.

80ibid. 44

She will never love him, and hating her or punishing her is use- 81

less. Even if he had Tristram killed, Isolt would not love

Mark. Thus he is finally reconciled to Tristram and Isolt being

together. He tells Isolt: I shall do no more harm to either of you Hereafter, and cannot do more to myself. I should have lost my nature not to take you Away from him—but now, having you here, I'm not so sure of nature as once I was. If it were fate for man here to be sure, He might not stay so long. I do not know. All I know now is that you sent for me, And that I've told you all, or I believe so, That you would hear me say. A month ago, He might have stepped from folly to sure death, Had his blind feet found Cornwall. But not now. Your gates and doors are open^ All I ask Is that I shall not see him.82

Mark has finally seen what he believes he should have seen years before. He believed then that Isolt would love him and that the crown he gave her would make up for any temporary

DO unhappiness. Isolt is grateful for Mark's final kindness.

She tells Mark:

. . . You are good to me. Whatever you do, I shall not be here long. Whatever you are, you have been good to me. I shall not be afraid of you again—84

Mark allows Tristram and Isolt to be together. All three of them realize that Isolt is dying. Andred, who loves both

81Ibid., p. 706.

82Ibid., p. 707.

83Ibid., p. 709.

84Ibid., p. 708. 45

Isolt and King Mark, does not realize that King Mark's attitude

toward Tristram has changed. Believing that he will gain favor with Mark if he kills Tristram, he slips into Isolt's room and stabs the prince. Mark is horrified at first. Finally he

realizes that their deaths may be for the best:

There was no more for them . . . and this is peace. I should have never praise or thanks of them If power were mine and I should waken them; And what might once have been if I had known Before—I do not know.85

As Mark gazes at Isolt and Tristram dead, he realizes that he

has never known the kind of love which they had for each other:

Nothing in this Is love that I have found, nor is it in love That shall find me.86

He is no longer as certain as he once was of what should have

been. He is a more thoughtful king.

Failure in personal relationships occurs again in Roman

Bartholow. The friendship is between Penn-Raven and Roman

Bartholow. In the beginning of the poem, Roman Bartholow is

extremely grateful to Penn-Raven. Penn-Raven has brought

Bartholow through a period of near insanity back to sanity.

He has helped him achieve a new vision of life. Roman Bartholow

sings praises of his friend, Penn-Raven:

He would have raised an altar now to spring, And one to God; and one more to the friend Who, coming strangely out of the unknown

85Ibid., p. 721.

86Ibid. 46

To find him here in his ancestral prison, Had brought with hita release. Never before Would he have said that any friend alive Had magic to make light so gross a weight As long had held him frozen out of sense And hearing of all save a dead negation That would not let him die.**'?

Although Penn-Raven and Roman Bartholow have not known each

other for a long period of time, they have become close friends.

They trust one another:

Each knew the other's heart Or so he fancied, and had found it right. Later Penn-Raven, having found the soul In Bartholow that ailed him had with ease Ineffable healed it.**®

Penn-Raven lives near Roman Bartholow and his wife, Gabrielle,

and then lives with them for more than a year. The means by which

he cures Bartholow are not clear. He has used a special power

and patience in bringing Bartholow back to awareness of life.

In his gratitude, Bartholow almost worships Penn-Raven. He tells

his friend, Umfraville:

There's a difference In one who lives to see himself behind him, And after a few years of living death Sees a new self before him, as I do. There was a friend who came to make it so, And one that if I gave him all I own Would leave me rich in wealth unpayable

Even though Penn-Raven has finished his task of restoring

Bartholow, he stays on with Bartholow and Gabrielle. He mentions

87 Ibid.t pp. 733-734.

88Ibid., p. 375. 89 Ibid., p. 739. 47 leaving several times but he cannot seem to bring himself to leave. In truth, he has fallen in love with Gabrielle. Taking advantage of a time when he knows Bartholow is away from the house, Penn-Raven "... goes calmly into his friend's house/ And lays his thick lips close upon those/ Of his friend's wife. . . ."90 Here the emphasis is on the betrayal of friendship, as it is when Bartholow discovers his friend's unfaithfulness. He has long since ceased loving Gabrielle. It is partly his discoveries that he did not love her or she him which first caused his insanityFor a while he believed that life was not worth living. The failure of their love almost destroyed him. But at the time when Penn-Raven goes in and kisses Gabrielle, Bartholow and Gabrielle have both known for a long time that the love that once was between them no longer exists:

... he knew That she knew more than he of what was gone, And so had known before there was a friend To save him and to filch her from his arms. ^ At the moment of discovering that his friend Penn-Raven is in love with Gabrielle, Bartholow does not know: Whether or not he prized her any more Than would a Sultan of another language, And with no mind for blood, prize what a thief That was a friend had stolen and made his.

90Ibid., p. 772. 91Ibid., p. 734. 92Ibid., p. 794. 93Ibid. 48

However, he does know that his friend has committed the final deception. The betrayal strikes at the heart of friendship.

A friend to whom he has entrusted his own soul has seduced his wife. Gabrielle, herself, believes that Penn-Raven's betrayal

is more disturbing to Bartholow than is the loss of her love:

Not sure that she knew why it was he trembled, Yet sure enough that it was less for her Than for the savior-friend who had betrayed him.**4

This knowledge is partly the cause of her committing suicide

the night of her husband's discovery of Penn-Raven's love for

her.

After Gabrielle's death, the problem of failure in friend-

ship is doubly burdensome to Bartholow because he knows that

he owes his return to normal living to his friend. Gabrielle

is no longer there to remind him by her very presence of what

has taken place between her and Penn-Raven. However, the thought

of his friend treating their friendship with such disregard makes

Bartholow heartsick. From this point the friendship further

deteriorates. There are fights between the two men—verbal

insults and physical blows. Bartholow finally furnishes the

ultimate insult by paying Penn-Raven to leave. Penn-Raven, for

his part, accepts the money.95 This last attempt at manipulation

of other people does not work. However, most of Penn-Raven's

manipulations of the people around him have been successful.

94Ibid., p. 803.

95Ibid., p. 829. 49

Penn-Raven is not the only dishonest character in the poem.

Bartholow and Gabrielle are also dishonest with each other.

Bartholow pretends to Gabrielle that the two of them can build a new life together and he pretends that he still loves her.

Gabrielle is past pretense. She has been emotionally drained by the emptiness of her life and by Bartholow's illness. She can no longer give her husband the slightest encouragement in his recovery. She cannot create happiness for herself or anyone else. Umfraville, Bartholow's confidant, explains the relation- ship to Bartholow:

You thought yourself alone; and all the time The two of you were stifling there together} Each having wrought so long upon the other In silence that in speech you played with lies, Fearing a thunderbolt if truth were spoken.

Lying about love seems to have been one of Gabrielle*s greatest problems. She did not love Bartholow when she married him. She married for convenience. When she finally grew to love him, Bartholow could not accept her love because he had stopped loving her. Bartholow, admitting that he might have killed Gabriellefs spirit before she actually died, tells

Umfraville:

She married without love; and when love came, A life too late, I should have been a liar To take it, or to say I treasured it; For when it came at last, out of the ruins, 96 Ibid., p. 837. 50

It was one remnant more among too many; It was love only as a beauty scarred Is beauty still.97

Failure in friendship and pei'sonal relations is part of the story in The Glory of the Nightingales. Again the friendship is between two men. Malory and Nightingale have been friends since they were boys in school. At that time they were devoted to each other. Nightingale reminisces before Malory:

... I saw you first As I had seen you long ago at school, When we were boys together, never dreaming Of what the coming men in us had waiting. There was nothing then of mine that was not yours; And you, if I had asked it, would have given More than you had to give.9®

Eventually Nightingale became Malory's counselor. He guided him in his career. Malory acknowledges Nightingale's assistance to him:

You led me to a door that had no key For me to use until you gave me one, . . . and you made possible A place where I might never have arrived Without your foresight and your confidence

Both Nightingale and Malory have achieved success in their professions. However, when the poem begins, Malory has left his career in medical research so that he can find Nightingale.

He intends to kill him. In fact, murdering Nightingale has become

97Ibid., p. 843.

98Ibid., p. 1047. 99, *Ibid., p. 1048. 51

Malory's main goal. He believes that his entire life will be a complete failure if he does not kill Nightingale.

The trouble which disrupted the friendship of Malory and

Nightingale concerned a woman whose name was Agatha. Agatha was first loved by Nightingale, as he later confesses to Malory: . . . When Agatha came to Sharon I saw what all my prowlings had been worth, And what my restlessness had waited for.

. . . The one thing Inkfd aot Was everything, and she was Agatha.

Nightingale and Agatha were planning to be married. How- ever, Nightingale made the mistake of introducing Malory to

Agatha:

. . . Kismet, or Ananke, Or melancholy chance, was following me When I brought you, as a friend brings a friend Into his treasure-house, to Agatha. You were my king of friends, and Agatha Was to be queen of all there was of me And mine to give her.-^2

Having seen Agatha, Malory fell in love with her himself. He wooed and won her. He excuses himself to Nightingale by claiming that Agatha never really loved Nightingale. Whether Agatha really loved him or not is a moot question to Nightingale.

Losing her was a crushing blow. He tells Malory:

100Ibid., p. 1012.

101Ibid., p. 1053.

102Ibid.

1Q3Ibid., p. 1054. 52

. . . you took everything Alive for me to live for* You had science, And I had nothing without Agatha. U4

He considered himself as one who had been robbed by his friends, declaring, "I saw myself as one left robbed and stabbed/ By 105 friends who had betrayed him in the dark."

Of course there is more to the trouble that has strained

the friendship between Malory and Nightingale than love of the same woman. Malory was dependent upon Nightingale for financial

advice. At first Nightingale advised him wisely, suggesting

to Malory where to invest his money. Malory prospered. After

Malory and Agatha were married, however, Nightingale was warned

by friends of the approaching stock market crisis in America.

He protected himself but failed to warn Malory. Malory suffered

a severe financial loss.106 Agatha, pregnant at the time, was 107 staggered by the loss and never recovered. When Malory

blames Nightingale for Agatha's death, Nightingale accepts the

blame.108 He tells Malory: . . . Tell yourself, And let there be no doubt, that I destroyed her While I believed I was destroying you.109

104Ibid., p. 1055. 10^

Ibid., p. 1056.

106Ibid., p. 1059.

107!bid. 108 Ibid.

1O0Ibid. 53

Nightingale's confession of guilt renews Malory's spirit

He realizes that Nightingale, terribly crippled by disease and in constant pain is not worth killing for revenge. He now believes that he would be doing Nightingale a favor if he did kill him because he would be ending his friend's misery.

Though Nightingale's acceptance of guilt for Agatha's death does not completely mend the friendship, it does open some lines of communication between the two. Malory, once a proficient doctor, has used the last of his money to seek Nightingale.

Nightingale, on the other hand, is a wealthy, eminent physician.

He owns land, buildings, equipment, and a reputation which he now believes might be used for medical purposes if he had someone to whom he could entrust them. He persuades Malory to accept the responsibility. He tells Malory:

. . . You owe yourself To your unhappy millions in your city Of cries and silences and suffering hope And there are many millions more to be, And to be stricken. The world is not all pain, But there is pain enough ahead of it, And in it, to ensure the resurrection Of you and your awakening faculties For the few hours that we call years of life That you may find remaining. A

Malory begins to share Nightingale's vision. He realizes that Nightingale intends to give him not only wealth but a life dedicated to serving man. Malory accepts all that Nightingale gives. He becomes his heir.

110Ibid., p. 1060.

li;LIbid., p. 1068. 54

Nightingale is relieved to have someone to carry on his work. Realizing that the disease which causes him so much pain is not a fatal disease, and wishing to have Malory's medical work begin at once, Nightingale shoots himself with Malory's gun.112 Matthias at the Door is another poem by Robinson in which friendship plays a part. In this poem the friendship is shared by three men—Matthias, Garth, and Timberlake. All three have known each other for a long time. Matthias and Garth were boy- 113 hood friends. ' Timberlake was a young man when he first met Matthias and Garth. Of the three friends, Matthias has been the most financially successful. He holds a position of eminence in the community. A man of power, he enjoys meditating about his wealth. Many have felt his power when something that he wanted was in their 114 possession. Matthias has property, a large house, and a beautiful wife. He is the picture of success. In contrast, his friend Garth has nothing. Though the two men began their careers together, Garth has never accomplished anything. He still visits Matthias and Matthias' wife, Natalie. He still speaks of the things he hopes to accomplish: ^^Ibid., p. 1071. 113Ibid., p. 1085. 114Ibid., p. 1088. 55

She [Natalia] sat where they had spoken yesterday So carelessly of Garth, who in time gone Had sat there with them and as carelessly Promised himself the wealth that was for him His pillow and his dream—not that he cared For wealth, but for the quieting of some tongues. Matthias, long familiar with it all, Had been for years indulgent and amused, But now for years had nodded, and sometimes Had yawned. It was his tongue, more than another, Garth would have quieted. 13

The discrepancy between the accomplishments of Matthias and Garth strains their friendship. Garth believes that Matthias is "so wrapped in rectitude""*"'*'® that it is impossible for him to have a clear vision of reality. He compares Matthias to 1X7 118 God. Since Garth is an atheist, this comparison is not a compliment. Matthias, on the other hand, believes Garth is envious of Matthias* accomplishments. "Has envy bitten you, 119 and so late as this?" he questions Garth.

Matthias worries about Garth's envy even though he refuses to accept any responsibility for Garth's failures: It was the old confusion failure makes, And will make always—or as long as men Prefer to fail. I am not judging him; I'm only sorry that he should make a show For me, at last, of an undying envy. I should have said, indeed, that in his envy, There was, till yesterday, a friendliness That was almost affection. I was friendly, But I was not his guardian, or torch-bearer.

115Ibid., P. 1100.

1;i6Ibid., P. 1084.

117Ibid., P. 1078. 118THIbi^d *, p. 1107.

119Ibid., P. 1085 .

120j;bid., P. 1093. 56

After one final conversation with Matthias, and after showing

Matthias a particular rock on Matthias' land which reminds Garth 191 of an Egyptian tomb, Garth commits suicide inside the rock.

Even after his death, the failure of their friendship continues to distress Matthias.

With Garth dead, Matthias has one friend left, Timberlake.

Timberlake is aware that Matthias needs his friendship, and this awareness colors all of Timberlake's actions. He is extremely loyal to Matthias. Early in their friendship, Matthias saved

Timberlake *s life. Timberlake's house was burning and Matthias broke down the door and carried his friend from the burning building. In an effort to make Natalie understand his feeling for Matthias, Timberlake describes his experience. He tells her that he thought he was going to die. He could not move to save himself. He lost consciousness, and when he awoke, he heard Matthias' voice, full of friendly concern, asking about 122 him. Timberlake cannot forget the act of kindness or the voice. In his gratitude for Matthias' saving his life and in his affection for Matthias, Timberlake gave up his own love for

Natalie. Timberlake explains his actions to Natalie: "I made myself more worthless than I was/ For his sake, and, as I saw then, for yours.»»^23 191 Ibid., p. 1090. 122Ibid., p. 1107.

123Ibid., p. 1108. 57

Even after twenty years have passed, Timberlake cannot bring

himself to take Natalie, though she still loves him and would probably go with him, because he knows that taking Natalie would 124 destroy his friend Matthias. Tiraberlake believes in honor;

taking his friend's wife would not be honorable. After Natalie

has broken her long silence and declared her love for him, Tim-

berlake leaves the area. He does not return until Natalie is dead.

When Tiraberlake does return, Matthias, who once rejected

him, welcomes him. Matthias is so glad to see Timberlake that 125 he cannot speak. For the first time since Natalie committed 126 suicide, Matthias feels that he is not alone. The friendship

between the two men, once destined for complete failure, has survived the trouble. It is a changed relationship, a closer

friendship.

The second type of failure in personal relationships which

Matthias suffers is in love. At the beginning of the poem,

Matthias is very much in love with Natalie. They have been 127 married for twenty years. When he thinks of his home, he thinks of Natalie somewhere inside and the thought of her is 128 pleasant and comforting to him. Matthias's friend, Timberlake,

realizes the extent of Matthias' love for Natalie. He tells her: ______Ibid. TOR Ibid., p. 1127. 1 OP, Ibid., p. 1128.

127Ibid., p. 1107.

128Ibid., p. 1077. 58

If you were not the world and heaven together For him and his complacent faith in you,

There might be some escape. 129

Natalie, for her part, has loved Matthias with certain reservations. Before she married him, Natalie professed to love him: . . . From where she was She looked down on the tops of the same trees That had been there when she had told Matthias She loved him—which was temperately true. She did not hate him and had married him For reasons old as history, and as good _ As reasons mostly are when they are found. Matthias' only complaint about Natalie is that she is not demonstrative. He tells her: "Women like you are not demon- lOI strative,/ And men like me may not be always vocal." A

Matthias has never guessed that Natalie really loves Tira- berlake. For twenty years they have concealed their love from him. Matthias does not even realize that Tiraberlake was the first of them to love Natalie because as soon as he knew Matthias loved Natalie, he left her to him. After Garth's death, Natalie and Timberlake accidentally meet at the rock where Garth killed himself. Natalie reaffirms 132 her love for Tiraberlake and clings to him. Natalie tells Timberlake that she does not love Matthias: 129 Ibid., p. 1108. 130Ibid., p. 1101. l *51 Ibid., p. 1099. 132 Ibid., p. 1104. 59

He thinks I love him, and so throws away No time or pride in asking why in the name Of heaven and earth I shouldn't. That's his way. He married me and put me in a cage ,3o To look at and to play with, and was happy.

However, Natalie still longs for Timberlake. She believes that all three of them have been fools because she and Timberlake are both unhappy and Matthias has built his happiness on the false belief that she loves him. Timberlake clings to the honorable solution of their problems. After one last passionate kiss, he and Natalie part. Timberlake leaves the area.

Unfortunately for Matthias and Natalie, Matthias has witnessed the rendezvous. Natalie does not know how much he has seen or heard, but she decides to be honest with him. She tells him that what has taken place is her fault and that she did not intend to meet Timberlake. She says:

. . . You saw me there; And if you heard me, you heard all there is. There is no more; there'll never be anything more. There was a man I would have married once, And likely to my sorrow, but you saved him Out of the fire ...... and because he was your friend, That man gave me to you, first having given Himself to folly and to waste worse than crime.

... I married you, Matthias, Because I liked you, and because your love Was too real to be tortured, and because There was no better thing for me to do.134

Natalie's confession that she does not love him almost destroys Matthias. Silently he cries. Then he leaves home

I33Ibid., p. 1105.

134Ibid., p. 1111.

135Ibid., p. 1112. 60

for many days. When he returns he can still not adjust to his new knowledge. It has become a sickness with him. Eventually he begins to drink heavily. Natalie wishes to go on as they were before. Matthias agrees verbally but he cannot bring him- self to accept the fact that she never truly loved him. One night, after drinking heavily for several hours, Matthias decides that he has enough love within himself for both of them. He kisses Natalie passionately. Natalie tries to free herself from his embrace. The next morning, having left a not of apology on Matthias' desk, Natalie finds the rock in which Garth died and kills herself.

Thus the love relationships in Matthias at the Door and Roman Bartholow are very similar. Both Matthias and Bartholow married for love. Each thought his wife combined within her all the qualities of beauty, intellect, and soul which each desired. Each practically worshipped his wife. In contrast to their husbands' feelings for them, both wives married for con- venience. Both were willing to make the best that they could of their marriages. But both felt as if they were treated as toys or as frivolous possessions rather than as people.

Both Bartholow and Matthias are almost destroyed when they discover that their wives do not love them totally. Both men are unwilling to compromise their standards of love. They pretend to accept the truth and try to maintain a civil manner with their wives, but within their hearts they can no longer truly love them. In the end, it is the wives who are destroyed. 61

They discover that they can not live without the love which once was theirs. Both commit suicide.

Talifer is a story primarily of love rather than of friend- ship. Friendship does exist in the poem. Dr. Quick is a friend of the three main characters, Talifer, Althea, and Karen. He tries to be fair in his relationship with each of the three.

He encourages Althea to wait for Talifer to return to her when

Talifer has fallen in love with Karen. He chastens Talifer 137 for forsaking Althea. Then he comforts Karen and sends her 138 away when she has fallen out of love with Talifer.

Talifer, the central figure in the poem, is a man to be 139 admired. He is handsome, wealthy, and well-bred. At first he believes he is in love with Althea. He courts her for two years and plans to marry her. Althea returns his love; indeed she has waited ten years for him to come back to the area and 140 marry her. Then Talifer changes his mind about which girl he really desires. He believes that he is in love with Karen, a neighbor of both Talifer and Althea. He believes that in loving Karen he has found peace. Talifer realizes that his falling in love with Karen will probably destroy Althea. How- ever, he tells Dr. Quick: 136 Ibid., P. 1240.

137 Ibid., P. 1251.

138 Ibid., P. 1288.

139 Ibid., P. 1247.

140 Ibid., P. 1255. 62

. . . You know the ruin that lies And fond hypocrisies have wrought in it; And you must know it was more honorable, Although there was a price of sorrow and pain Involved, and more considerate, and more manlike On my side, not to fail when I was tested. 141 Thus Talifer defends himself for forsaking Althea to marry Karen, After living with Karen for a year, and after having en- joyed an elaborate and lengthy honeymoon, Talifer is ready to murder his wife. She is extremely beautiful, but she is 142 inaccessible to him. Talifer is becoming desperate. He is quite serious about his responsibility toward upholding the prestige of his family.*43 A Talifer divorce would go against family tradition. Talifer believes that he is doomed to a life with Karen, and too late he realizes the mistake he has made in marrying her. He has deserted the woman who really loved him for one who does not love him. He and Karen have failed to create a meaningful relationship between them. Each seems determined to destroy the other. Fortunately Karen is not bound by the Talifer tradition. She does fear public opinion.*44 However, Dr. Quick helps her arrange to leave Talifer and the United States and escape to England. There she will be free to do as she pleases and she will not be annoyed by any neighborhood gossip. Talifer gains a reprieve. 141Ibid., p. 1254. 142Ibid., p. 1283. 143Ibid., p. 1278. 144Ibid., p. 1289. 63

Talifer is one of the few characters in Robinson's major poems to get a second chance. He returns to Althea, who still loves him and is still waiting for him, and they marry. Since

Althea refuses to be haunted by the past, Talifer struggles to forget it also. Their second chance for love seems to be destined for success.

Failure in personal relationships occurs again in Cavender1s

House. The poem is the story of a man whose relationship with his wife degenerates to the point that she dies and he ruins his life. When the poem begins, Cavender has returned to his old home alter being absent for twelve years. He has spent his time traveling abroad, but he has been unable to forget Laramie, his late wife. He is convinced that she has been calling him to return to their home. Cavender returns home to see whether

Laramie will answer his questions concerning her death and her loyalty to him.

Before Laramie died, Cavender was a wealthy man of power.

He possessed the money and prestige to wreck other men's for- tunes and he wrecked them without giving his destruction much thought, meanwhile claiming that he helped the ordinary public 145 achieve a better way of life. Laramie describes Cavender to himself:

You were a man of many promises, With deeds enough already to warrant them;

145„ Ibid., p. 982. 64

You were a playful and persuasive man, With power and will beneath your levity To make a woman curious to be bent A little, but not broken; . . .146 147 Cavender was the envy of all who knew him. To suit his prestigious position in the community, he married a beautiful 148 wife. Cavender thought of his wife as a lovely possession.

He did not consider that she might have either thoughts or feelings,

In fact he would discourage her from thinking because he might seem to be less valuable in her eyes if she did. In retrospect,

Cavender believes that Laramie let her love for him blind her to the manner in which he treated her. What he believes to be her ghost tells him;

. . . You were a playful man, Cavender; and you played with me sometimes As a child might, seeing it in the house, With a superior kitten. It was careless Of me that I was not much given to thought While I believed in you and in your love, Which was a sort of love—the sort that owns And gloats, and prowls awav complacently For capture and a change. Laramie had assumed that her beauty, personality, and love would be sufficient to keep Cavender faithful to her. However, he preferred variety to constancy and thus engaged in numerous liaisons with other women. Aside from his own desire for

146Ibid., p. 980. 147 Ibid., p. 987. 148 Ibid., p. 969. 149 Ibid., p. 996. 65 variety, Cavender loved Laramie. Unfortunately, he did not rea- lize how much he loved her until after she was dead.

In Cavender's mind, Laramie admits that she had faults too. A most serious fault was her indirect manner of communicating. Her indirectness infuriated Cavender because he was never sure when she was telling the truth. Part of Laramie's appeal had been her ability to seem both evil and innocent at the same time."^® Laramie always maintained an air of mystery when she was with Cavender, and he tells himself that he never quite penetrated that mystery. Cavender tells Laramie's ghost:

. . . There are some women Whose privilege is to treasure and conserve Their mystery, and to make as much of it, As heaven may give them leave and means. But you, Having so perilous an abundance of it, Made for yourself a peril of its abuse— ^ Unfortunately for both of them, Laramie's mysterious ways maddened Cavender. He suspected that his wife was having an affair with another man. He had no proof of any wrong committed on her part and she would neither confirm nor deny the rumor. Laramie did not know that Cavender would assume that she was guilty, nor did she realize that her refusal to answer his accusations would throw him into a rage. Moreover, she was bitter because she had begun to realize that her love was not sufficient for him. Laramie tells Cavender:

150 Ibid.) p. 966. 151Ibid., p. 984. 66

... My vanity Misled me to suppose that I should be Enough, but there was never enough for you. I should have foreseen that your daily bread Was mostly to be change, and that your theme Of being was wholly to be you. No doubt My pride was in a panic when it first Conceived how little for you there was of me That was not either a body or a face; . . . 52

The relationship between Laramie and Cavender had degenerated from faith to mistrust. Laramie believed that Cavender loved her for her physical attributes and Cavender believed that Laramie had been unfaithful to him.

Many questions about the night Laramie died disturb Cavender.

He still wonders whether Laramie had had a lover. He begs her to tell him but she simply asks him how he could have possibly had time to worry about her affair while handling so many of his own. She tells him:

... If I transgressed In desperation or in vindictiveness At last, as fear inflamed you to believe, I wonder when it was your avocations Had first recess and leisure to find out, 1£> And then to be disturbed . 3

Laramie suspects that Cavender wants her to tell him she was 1 guilty so that he may feel less guilt himself. Laramie will not give Cavender this satisfaction. Cavender is also afraid that he may have murdered Laramie. The details of the evening are not clear in his mind although he strongly suspects that he

152Ibid ., p. 980.

Ibid., p. 997. 1 Ibid., p. 993. 67 did kill her. There is some question as to whether or not he really meant to kill her. The cliff on whose edge they were quarrelling was bordered by a rusty and insecure iron fence. The weight of her body falling against the fence could have caused the fence to give way. Cavender asks himself whether or not he could have caught Laramie as she fell. He wonders, too, if she died partly because she believed he did not love her. He hopes fate had a hand in her death because that belief would remove some of the responsibility for the murder from his own conscience. At one point Cavender believes that Laramie tells him: I was not hurt. You only frightened me. And gave yourself a scar that will not heal. My wish would be that you forget it all, But my will is not yours. The best for you Is to believe me always when I tell you That hands harder than yours were helping you To hurt yourself that night.*55 Cavender*s conversation with Laramie is taking place in their old home. Cavender is afraid to light a light in the house because he fears that he will be discovered by other men who would not understand his presence there, and because he believes Laramie can return to him only as a ghost. Though he has been tempted to touch the being he is seeing before him, he is afraid that she might disappear if he did touch herj so he controls his impulses. Cavender feels compelled to try to

Ibid., pp. 971-972. 68

make Laramie answer his questions. Independent as he seemed during her lifetime, he has grown more aware of his love for her since her death. It is as though she has become part of him."^®

He cannot understand how he could have realized her value enough to marry her and then have discarded her so easily. He asks himself, "... Was ever a man/ So grievously the fool of his 157 possession/ As to throw this away, and then himself?" He ~i CO believes that Laramie enslaved him with all her special ways.

He could not tolerate her mocking and she seemed to mock him on 159 the night that she died.

Laramie and Cavender continue to discuss how their relation- ship failed. They realize that mistrust, jealousy, and selfish- ness contributed to their failure. They try to relive the night of Laramie's death. Laramie leads Cavender to the cliff. She tells him that she believed that he was a brave man until that night but that she thinks he was afraid to look over the cliff to see what he had done. Cavender believes she tells him: . . . Men have been scared As much in that way as in any other; And I should hate it worse than seeing demons. I'd rather see a demon, Cavender, Than a dead woman after I had killed her; And I would rather see her dead before me , „0 Than know she was down there, not seeing her.

l56Ibid., p. 965. 157Ibid., p. 969. 158 Ibid.t p. 988.

159Ibid.

160lbid., p. 999. 69

Cavender could not accept the responsibility for Laramie's death. The night that she died he went from friend to friend seeking her and pretending that he did not know where she was.

After Laramie's body was discovered by workmen, Cavender let the townspeople believe she had committed suicide. Then he left his home to travel in distant lands.

Not only has Cavender*s relationship with Laramie failed but so also has his method of escape. Pretending innocence has not made him innocent. Cavender is haunted by the fear that Laramie will never forgive him. He is also afraid that his memories of what he has done will remain with him through death and that he can neither forgive himself nor be forgiven. He wants Lar- amie to reassure him that the dead do not remember what took 161 place in life. He also wants Laramie to reassure him con- cerning the nature of death. He hopes that she will tell him 162 that death is not always unpleasant. He hopes that she will tell him that her death was of no particular importance. 1 AQ Cavender is being pulled apart by his opposing views.

First he blames Laramie for what happened. She should not have angered him. Then he blames himself for becoming angry. He hopes that Laramie did not suffer and convinces himself that the fall from the cliff was painless though he cannot bring himself

161Ibid., p. 995.

162Ibid., p. 994.

163Ibid., p. 963. 70 to try the same descent. He wants to believe that some accident or some force stronger than himself caused her to fall, but he believes that he threw her over the edge. He wants to believe that Laramie was guilty of adultery, but he cannot bear to think of some other man touching her. Cavender would like for Laramie to be gentle, receptive, and forgiving. However, at times she seems cruel and unrelenting. He wants to escape from the law and he wants to be punished by the law. No matter how he begs for answers to his questions, Laramie will not answer. He tells her:

. . . Laramie, I have nothing. No, I have nothing left in all this world But one unanswered question following me And leaping on me like a monster laughing— A beast that will not die until 1 die, If it will then. You know, and you may tell me, Whether a madness tortures me tonight With hope, or whether reason lives in it. Even you may say as much as Yes or No To that.164

But Laramie does not answer. At last Cavender realizes that

Laramie cannot answer because he has created her ghost with his own imagination. She cannot tell him anything he does not know because she is part of him. The face he believed was her face 165 turns slowly into his own. His own voice tells him:

. . . Love, would you call it? You jealous hound, you murderer, you poor fool'. You are listening to yourself now, Cavender;

164 Ibid., p. 992.

165Ibid., p. 1005. 71

And Laramie, let us hope, is where no sound Of this will find her. She has had enough Of you, and she has earned her silences, Or what may be for her.166

Cavender finally realizes that he alone can help himself to 167 find a better life. He will have to earn the "right to die."

He can now face the truth about himself and he accepts Laramie's death. At last he is ready to accept the responsibility for murdering her. He is prepared to face the law. Though the per- sonal relationship between Laramie and Cavender has failed, Cavender has partially redeemed himself by facing the truth about what he has done. He is now ready to accept the consequences of going against the laws of man and God. Failure in personal relationships is a major theme in Edwin Arlington Robinson's longer poems. This type of failure usually occurs on a private level of a character's existence so that others may not notice the failure. However, the character involved is very much aware of his own failure. Personal relationships can be divided into two separate categories. In one category are relationships between men which are friendships, and in the other category are relationships between men and women, or love relationships. Friendship and love can be of equal value in a person's life.

In Robinson's longer poems, friendship is shared by King Arthur and Merlin, King Arthur and Lancelot, and Gawaine and

166Ibid., p. 1004. 167Ibid., p. 1005. 72

Lancelot. For a time King Mark and Tristram are friends. Roman

Bartholow and Penn-Raven share a close friendship, as do Night- ingale and Malory, and Matthias and Timberlake. Both Garth and

Avon illustrate the bitterness of friendship lost in envy or fear. To all of these men friendship is something to be trea- sured. When they are false to their friends or believe their friends are false, they become angry, bitter, and disillusioned.

One of the most important trials a friendship must endure is being placed in juxtaposition with a love relationship.

In Robinson*s longer poems, love relationships are shared by Lancelot and Guinevere and King Arthur and Guinevere. Tris- tram is loved by two Isolts—a dark and a fair,—and the dark

Isolt is also loved by King Mark. Roman Bartholow and Penn-Raven are both in love at one time or another with Gabrielle. Night-

ingale and Malory love Agatha, and her untimely death becomes an almost unsurmountable barrier to their friendship. Matthias and Timberlake love Natalie, and again a friendship is almost destroyed. Talifer loves both Althea and Karen, but his friend,

Dr. Quick, helps relieve him of Karen when he grows unhappy with

her. Cavender is blessed with no such friend and finally mur-

ders his love, Laramie. Failure in love seems to be much more

prevalent than success. Whenever a woman thinks of a man as

a means to a life without material struggle, the union is

doomed to failure. Whenever a man thinks of a woman as a mere

possession to be played with, the relationship suffers irre-

trievable ruin. 73

In both love and friendship, the old values of honor, honesty, and sincerity are most important in maintaining a successful relationship. CHAPTER III

FAILURE IN MATERIAL. SUCCESS OR

IN PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

There are many characters in Robinson's longer poems who fail in the eyes of society. Some of these characters fail on the worldly level. From all outward appearances they are lacking in accomplishments. Others have undertaken responsibilities or tried to create something worth while but have apparently failed in what they had hoped to accomplish. Still others have obvi- ously failed in their endeavors but have succeeded in some other area of their lives. The apparent failures comprise the largest group in Robinson's major works.

Captain Craig is one of the best examples of one who appar- ently fails in his pursuits. When the poem Captain Craig begins,

Captain Craig is ill and destitute. He has achieved no fame and has no friends. He is forced to beg for food and he is not successful even at begging.1 He reaches out and touches people and tells them that he will starve if they do not help him.

Each person moves on without helping him. The Captain becomes increasingly discouraged:

1 Edwin Arlington Robinson, Collected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York, 1966J, p. 113. 74 75

... He was cold, And old, arid hungry; but the worst of it Was a forlorn familiar consciousness That he had failed again.^ He knows that he will soon die unless he can get help. He returns to his meager shelter and shivers in his bed, a picture of fail- ure on the worldly level. To his credit Captain Craig does not complain about his condition. He does not curse those who have refused him and does not blame anyone else for his failure. Nor does he apologize. As the Captain struggles to keep alive, most of the people in Tilbury, the town in which he lives, simply ignore him: . . . There were no men to blame: There was just a false note in the Tilbury tune— A note that able-bodied men might sound Hozannas on while Captain Craig lay quiet. Fortunately, before he starves to death, Captain Craig is discovered by several men in Tilbury. They minister to him— supplying him with food and warmth to revive him. A few give the added gift of listening to what the old man has to say. Hidden behind a poverty-stricken facade are knowledge and understanding

and a unique philosophy of life. Captain Craig admits that he has not accomplished anything that is noteworthy. He has not created any song or painting of 4 value. He has not accumulated any great material wealth and he does not have many friends. To all outward appearances he is a complete failure.

2Ibid., p. 114.

3 Ibid. ^Ibid., p. 133. 76

However, the Captain is an aware person. He has noticed the

flaw in the world's make-up that would let men pass other men in need while they thought of themselves as good and holy men.

However, this realization only makes him more grateful to those men who have not only noticed his plight but have also assisted 5 him. He tells them that they had the courage to "pattern Love." The Captain's new friends are not prepared to find any signs of education in the tramp they have assisted. To their surprise, they find the man they have rescued to be a very learned person. He is knowledgeable in history and in eastern as well as western philosophies. Added to this vast knowledge is a thorough under- standing of the world and its occupants. In addition, the Cap- tain has developed his own philosophy of life. This philosophy or wisdom he wishes to impart to any who will listen to him before he dies. The Captain believes there are two types of gifts and two types of gratitude: First, would 1 have you know, for every gift Or sacrifice, there are—or there may be— Two kinds of gratitude: the sudden kind We feel for what we take, the larger kind We feel for what we give.6 He believes that the world knows this assumption to be true. It has been told again and again. In fact, the world has been told the truth thousands of times. However, the world only under- stands parts of what it is told. Many books have been written

® Ibid., p. 115. 6 Ibid. 77 about the truth but they are eventually forgotten except perhaps 7 by God. As the Captain tries to teach what he has learned about giving to his listeners, he points out the difference in the gift of life a soldier gives on the battlefield and the gift of life one gives by encouraging a fellow man. The latter gift has much greater value in the Captain's eyes because it is a gift of life rather than of death. It is a gift of love.

The Captain has great faith in man and what he can accom- plish if he only will. He reminds his friends:

'Of all the many marvelous things there are, Nothing is there more marvelous than man,' Said Sophocles, and he lived long ago. 'And earth, unending ancient of the gods He furrows; and the ploughs go back and forth, Turning the broken mould, year after year' . . The Captain believes that even though man could accomplish great things if he would, it is the earth and God that remain regard- less of man. The Captain also believes that man simply limits himself when he tries to make God into his own image. When man does this, he creates a failing God, for then God-like man will finally fail. God is infinite and man should not attempt 9 to limit Him.

Captain Craig teaches that before man can truly appreciate life or God, he must gain wisdom from his experiences. The

Captain has learned that when a man has gained wisdom, then he

?Ibid., p. 116.

8Ibid., pp. 117-118,

9Ibid., p. 118. 78 can experience joy. This philosophy is one which makes Captain

Craig an ultimate success even though he is an apparent failure.

He has thought about the most acute problems in life. Not only has he thought about them, he has tried to resolve them. He believes that supposedly honoring God with many types of "God- fearing festivals" is useless.10 One must seek a cosmic perspec- tive . One must "learn to laugh with God."11 Only this type of vision can bring wisdom and true joy.

One of the qualities that makes Captain Craig an ultimate success is that he is a devout seeker of the truth. Another 12 quality is his cheerful attitude. In spite of his poverty and ill health, the Captain remains cheerful. Thoughts of the

Captain cheer his few friends. Captain Craig is glad to be alive,

He finds happiness in simple things. He takes time to appreciate each day. He finds joy in natux-e. As long as he has something to eat and a place in which to sleep he is untouched by material desires. He is content to be himself. He believes he is in tune with the child he once was. Captain Craig suggests that those who lose the memory of the children they once were are the 13 men who fail to consider their fellow human beings. He writes to his friend:

I cannot think of anything today That I would rather do than be myself, Primevally alive, and have the sun

1QIbid., p. 119.

X1Xbid.

12 Ibid., p. 124. l *3 Ibid., p. 125. 79

Shine into me; for on a day like this, When chaff parts of a man's adversities Are blown by quick spring breezes out of him— When even a flicker of wind that wakes no more Than a tuft of grass, or a few young yellow leaves, Comes like the falling of a prophet's breath On altar flames rekindled of crushed embers,— Then do I feel, now do I feel, within me No dreariness, no grief, no discontent, No twinge of human envy

Captain Craig does not want anyone to assume that his pre- sent state of contentment was an easy achievement. He explains

that for many years he was greatly disturbed by the misery in

the world. He saw people suffering in the worst possible ways.

He knows that people are still suffering. However, he has decided that it is better for him to be cheerful than to be miser-

able. Being depressed about the world's condition is not going

to improve the world. He tells his friend:

. . . Because one half of humankind Lives here in hell, shall not the other half Do any more than just for conscience' sake Be miserable? Is this the way for us To lead these creatures up to find the light— Or to be drawn down surely to the dark Again? . .

Captain Craig has learned that there is no simple way to

face life and human problems. One cannot cope with them by main-

taining a spirit of childlike optimism, for the child is often

unaware of the problems about him. He has neither insight nor

wisdom. An adult without insight into another's problems appears

to be heartlessly shallow in his approach to life. Nor is it 14Ibid., pp. 126-127.

Ibxd. 80

good to be always depressed and sorrowful. The best way to cope with life, so the Captain believes, is to know oneself. He rea- lizes that this is no simple task. Indeed, it may be an impos- sible task for many. However, if a man is to succeed in life on the personal level, he must see himself truly. As one of his last acts in life, Captain Craig tries to teach this lesson to his friends.

The Captain does not believe that all men should seek the same goals in life. He admits again that he has not accomplished anything noteworthy. He writes his friend:

Though I look back through barren years enough To make me seem—as I transmute myself In downward retrospect from what I ara— As unproductive and as unconvinced Of living bread and the soul's eternal draught As a frog on a Passover-cake in a streamless desert,— Still do I trust the light that I have earned, And having earned, received.16

It is a type of accomplishment that Captain Craig has gained wisdom. He can enjoy the atmosphere about him. He knows that there are other things to seek besides those that are pop- ular with other men. "Do you think there are no proper comedies/

But yours that have the fashion?" he asks his friends. He remem- bers another fellow who was poor and outcast who taught hira something:

The more we measure what is ours to use . . . the less we groan For what the gods refuse. •*•'7

16Ibid., p. 134.

17Ibid., p. 136. 81

This man, Count Pretzel Von Vi'urzburger, the Obscene, knew that though it appeared that he was always begging, in actuality he was really giving all that he had of himself to give to everyone he metAnd he gave to everyone he met the opportunity to give to him. Pretzel once told Captain Craig: . . . You may believe That I'm a mendicant, but I am not: For though it look to you that I go begging, The truth is I go giving—giving all My strength and all my personality, My wisdom and experience—all myself, To make it final—for your preservation.-^

Part of Captain Craig's success is that he recognizes the good in men whom others either ignore or condemn because they do not adhere to their concept of success.

Captain Craig has been in the care of the small group of men in Tilbury almost a year when he gradually becomes ill. As autumn nears, the Captain is confined to his bed. He believes he will soon die. Therefore he writes his will. He leaves his 20 friends "God's universe" and much advice about how to get along best in that universe. He leaves them his philosophy. He in- forms them that perhaps he has learned through failure what others have learned through success. He tells his friends: And here do I insert an urging clause For climbers and up-fliers of all sorts, Cliff-climbers and high-fliers: Phaethon, Bellerophon, and Icarus did each Go gloriously up, and each in turn

18Ibid., p. 137.

19Ibid. 20Ibid., p. 149. 82

Did famously come down—as you have read In poems and elsewhere; but other men Have mounted where no fame has followed them, And we have had no sight, no news of them, And we have heard no crash, The crash may count, Undoubtedly, and earth be fairer for it; Yet none save creatures out of harmony Have ever, in their fealty to flesh, Made crashing an ideal. It is the flesh That ails us, for the spirit knows- no qualm, No failure, no down-falling: . . .21 The Captain urges his friends to spend their lives searching for truth. He also urges them to give to others. He himself regrets the times he could have spoken a word of kindness or encouragement to someone but failed to do so because of pride or selfishness. He urges them to allow others to give to them. He has learned that often we refuse to befriend our fellow men and then blame others for our own failures in friendship and love, .2 2 Captain Craig has also learned that often after struggling to find the truth and after enduring many troubles and failures, some men will not share what they have ler«rne'l a:• h their fellow men. He asks himself and he asks his friands what a person should do if he should find the answer to life revealed to him.

The Captain thinks a man should help his struggling companions 23 to find the truth also. Even if a man has achieved all types of worldly success, he should not feel that his worldly gain eliminates his responsibility to his neighbors. Men are not 21Ibid., pp. 150-151. 22Ibid., p. 155. 235.Ibid. , p. 157. 83 isolated. Everything on earth is influenced by man's progress or lack of progress. The Captain tells his friends: . . . What you take To be the cursedest mean thing that crawls On earth is nearer to you than you know: You may not ever crush him but you lose, You may not ever shield him but you gain— As he, with all his crookedness, gains with you. Your preaching and your teaching, your achieving, Your lifting up and your discovering, Are more than often—more than you have dreamed— The world-retracted evidence of what Your dream denies.24 Captain Craig's final success is that he can face death without fear. From the very beginning of his rescue when he believed that death was imminent, he has insisted that his friends have a brass band play at his funeral. He does not forget this 25 last desire. "Play Handel, not Chopin; assuredly not/ Chopin," he tells those listening to his will. The brass band becomes the symbol of the Captain's triumph over the fear of death. He is quite disappointed when his friends appear sad because he is dying. He does not want his friends to grieve because their grief belies his teachings. Their grief signifies that they 26 have heard him speak and have not accepted his thoughts. Cap- tain Craig believes that death is a way of progressing. What matters is not death itself but man's approach to death. He tells the Tilbury men: . . . for I would scan today Strong thoughts on all your faces—no regret,

^Ibid., p. 158, 25Ibid., p. 159, 26 Ibid., p. 165, 84

No still commiseration—oh, not that— No doubt, no fear. A wan may be as brave As Ajax in the fury of his arms, And in the midmost warfare of his thoughts Be frail as Paris . . .27

In Captain Craig's case, the mind triumphs. He is without OQ regret and without anxiety. His last word is "Trombones."'

The beggar and tramp, a destitute failure on the worldly level, has scored a personal triumph. He has faced poverty without complaint, and has faced rejection by his fellow men without bitterness. He has educated himself aud has continued to pon- der life1s problems even in his old age. He has kept his mind alert and has organized his thoughts so that he might share them with others. He has been generous enough to share his

thoughts with anyone who will listen. When death has approached

him, he has accepted it without fear or regret. On the personal

level, this apparent failure in human endeavor is an outstanding success.

Fernando Nash is another who apparently fails in public

accomplishment. He is the principal character in The Man Who

Died Twice. When the poem begins, Fernando Nash is a bass

drummer in a religious street band. He is an enthusiastic

drummer and does not hesitate to call out "Hallelujah" when the 29 spirit moves him. He carries out his task with so much fer-

vox* that he attracts the attention of a passing friend. 97 Ibid., p. 166.

28Ibid., p. 167. 29Ibid., p. 921. 85

The friend, who has not seen Fernando Nash for over twenty years, barely recognizes him. He remembers that Nash was once one of the most talented people he had ever known. He was a 30 "potential world-shaker," a strong and powerful person and an independent, creative individual. Many lesser men were so en- vious of him that they tried to destroy him in any way they

31 could. The man the friend sees now as Fernando Nash is greatly altered: Here were the features, and to some degree The massive aggregate of the whole man, "where former dominance and authority Had now disintegrated, lapsed, and shrunken To an inferior mystery $hat had yet The presence in defeat.^ At first the friend believes that Nash has been destroyed by the world, for he looks like a ruined man. However, soon the friend realizes that some of the old strengths still remain with

Fernando Nash even though they are greatly altered.

Since the friend has never tried to destroy Fernando Nash himself, Nash decides to tell him his story. He invites him to his room, which is barely large enough for one bed and one chair.

The room's only other furnishings are a lamp, a mirror, and a picture of Bach. Fernando Nash is quite obviously a material

failure. He has no wealth; in fact, he is extremely poor. How-

ever, Fernando Nash does not seem to notice his failure in terms

of physical comforts. He has experienced a much greater failure 30Ibid., p. 921.

31Ibid., p. 922.

Ibid., p. 921. 86 in the field of musical art. Fernando Nash was once a writer of symphonies.

For a long time Fernando has been absorbed by his failure to produce a lasting musical work. When he was a young man, it was assumed by those who knew him and by himself that he had one of the few great talents for musical composition that had ever existed. His friend testifies for him:

It might, I say, cleaving inveterately To my conviction that in this man's going More went than when in Venice went the last Authentic wizard, who in his house of sound Hears not the siege of Time. Failing a way To prove that one obscure evangelist, Beating a drum and shouting for the Lord, Not only might have been (to fill again That weary sieve with wine) but was in fact A giant among fewer than half your f ingei'S Of Jubal's clan . . .33

In spite of this superior creative gift, Fernando Nash

failed to produce any work of outstanding merit. There are

several reasons for his failure. His life has been marred by

ill-fortune. His friend calls him "the marked of devils"

implying that supernatural forces seem to have interrupted his

life with trouble of first one kind and then another. His

friend believes that Fernando was pursued by bad luck because

he possessed such outstanding talent. He says that the devils

. . . must have patiently And slowly crucified, for subtle sport, This foiled initiate who had seen and felt Meanwhile the living fire that mortal doors For most of us hold hidden.34

33Ibid., p. 936. 34 Ibid., p. 922. 87

Fernando Nash failed partly because of the envy of those

about him. Because he was so outstandingly talented, his less

talented friends tried to destroy him. They believed him to be 35 dangerous because his gift overshadowed theirs. Even when others respected him for his talent, they hated him. Fernando,

because he believed in his work, scorned his detractors. He

believed himself above them because his works would be immortal.

He tells his friend: They knew I had it—onceI Do you remember What an upstanding Ajax 1 was then? And what an eye I had? I scorched •em with it. I scared 'em; and they knew I was a giant.36 Of course Fernando Nash's greatest enemy has been himself.

At first he believed in his talent, thinking he was one of the

chosen few. He believed his work would be immortal and would

rank beside Bach's works and other great composers * compositions.

Nash did complete two symphonies. These were very good but they

were not the masterpieces he had anticipated writing. He praised 37 them but he finally destroyed them. One day Fernando suddenly

realized that he was forty-five years old. Without realizing

what he was doing, he had slowly let his talent and his creative 38 discipline slip away from him. He was no longer as ambitious

as he was when he was a younger man. He decided that he had

drifted too far from his goals to re-establish them. Seeing 35Ibid.

36Ibid., p. 924.

Xbxd», 3S Ibid*, p* 926. 88 himself in a dingy mirror, he asked himself:

. . . And how long Have you been on your way, do you suppose, To come to this? If I remember you As first you were anointed and ordained, There was a daemon in you, not a devil, Who told you then that when you heard those drums Of death, it would be death to follow them. You were to trust your daemon and to wait,

And wait, and still to wait. You had it once.39

Fernando Nash reminds himself that he knew he was immensely gifted even when he was a schoolboy. Now the great talent will be passed to someone else since he has squandered it. He knows that if he had only been patient, he would have produced the immortal work. He could not teach himself to be patient, how- ever. Now his less talented friends have produced as much as he himself has. He tells himself:

You knew that if you waited, they not you, Should cease—that they should all be hushed at last In the great golden choral fire of sound. •Symphony Number Three. Fernando Nash.' Five little words like that, if you had waited, Would be enough to-night, you flabby scallion,

To put you on the small roll of the mighty.40

Fernando believes that his first two symphonies v/ere simply his way of practicing before writing his third great symphony.

He worked hard enough to finally create something original, some new combinations of sound. Then he began to doubt the value of his work. He began to give up. He asks himself why he could not just have died when he realized he would not finish his QQ Ibid., p. 928. 40Ibid. 89 third symphony. He wonders why he wasted all the years he was trying to perfect his compositions:

Where was the use of all your prentice-years Wherein you toiled, while others only tinkled Till you were master of a new machine That only your invention could have built Or driven? You built it and you let it rust.4*

As he tries to explain his failure to himself, Fernando seems to think that the two major reasons he has failed were his impatience in waiting for the magnificent inspiration to be given him and his lack of faith that the inspiration would be given. He tells himself:

A fog of doubt that a small constant fire Would have defeated had invisibly And imperceptibly crept into it, And made the miracle in it that was yours A nameless toy for the first imbecile To flout who found it—wherefore he'11 not find it.

While he was waiting to write his immortal work, he let himself be tempted by other paths and lesser music. He began to believe

that his gift would come whether or not he worked to perfect his skill. If he had been strong, he believes the temptations would have disappeared eventually. He says:

. . . You had it—once. You had enough of it to make you know, And were among the sceptered of the few In having it. But Where's your sceptre now? You threw it away; and then went wallowing After that other music, and those drums— Assured by more than man's authority

41Ibid., p. 929.

42Ibid. 90

That all you had not then was only waiting To make of that which once was you a torch Of sound and fire that was to flood the world With wonder, and overwhelm those drums of death To a last silence that should have no death.4,3 Finally Nash realizes that he will become another forgotten 44 musician. No one will care what he might have accomplished. No one will even notice that once he dominated the musical scene. No one will care about a failure. Nash believes that no one will ever know how he has suffered since he threw away his great tal- ent. He pities the ordinary people who have no devils and temp- tations with which to struggle. They will never understand his condemnation of himself. Fernando thinks that nothing he does will ever redeem his failure, not even singing in the religious band: His birthright, signed away in fettered sloth To the most ingenious and insatiable Of usurers, had all vanished; and the more He might have been a king, the more their greed Would mock him and his tatters, and abase him, And his vituperative temporizing Over a soul in rage would mend no holes. In his desperation, Fernando Nash decides to kill himself. He considers many ways of committing suicide. Finally he decides to starve himself to death since starvation is a comparatively slow form of suicide. It may permit some revelation to reach him while he is dying. He hopes he may learn more about the

43Ibid., P. 930. 44 Ibid., P. 931. 45Ibid., P. 934. 46Ibid., p. 935. 91 reasons for his failure as he dies. While he starves, Fernando Nash has plenty of time to contemplate the two symphonies he has destroyed. Since they were not his best, he decides again that he did well to destroy them. He does not want anyone else to copy his original work, nor does he want anyone remembering anything but his best woris. Nash becomes a little impatient with his slow method of dying; so he decides to go on one last wild excursion. His debauchery lasts for three weeks. Finally he wakes, surprised to discover that he is once again in his own bed. Nightmares follow in which the picture of Bach comes alive and rats come in to play a symphony arid to laugh at him. Again and again Nash berates himself for his failure. At last his mind begins to clear. He can think more clearly than he has ever thought before. He finally permits himself to think about what has happened. He begins to feel calm for the first time in his life and to find relief from all his suffering. He begins to feel ashamed for all his curses against God and to feel that he has been forgiven for all that he has done: ... A grateful shame For all his insults to the Holy Ghost That were forgiven was like an anodyne Laid on a buried wound somewhere within him, Deeper than surgeons go; and a vast joy, Which broke and swept and covered him like a sea Of innocence, leaving him eager as a child That has outlived experience and remembers Only the golden moment as it flows, Told him in silence that was more than speech That after passion, arrogance and ambition, Doubt, fear, defeat, sorrow, and desperation, He had wrought out of martyrdom the peace That passeth understanding

47Ibid., p. 943. 92

Gradually Nash's desire to live is revived. He knows that his long regret over his failure to finish his third symphony will ease soon. He begins to feel free. For the first time in his life, he is humble and no longer wishes to become famous. He will be content to serve God. He can still hear the drums of death but he no longer seeks death. He does seek atonement for his lengthy period of wastefulness, but he warns himself against being too zealous in his weakened condition. As he lies on his bed, at peace with God, himself, and the world, he begins to feel that death is once more approaching. He regrets death this time because he is anxious to retain his new-found peace. Once more he is afraid of death, and once more he is filled with insane regret for his past life. Then as his sorrow becomes intense, he welcomes death. Once again, however, Nash does not die. As he lies waiting, he begins to hear the great music that he has thought he would never hear. He knows that his past actions should have prevented his hearing the music, but he is engulfed by the sounds around him: Now it was theirs {celestial messengers J} to sing and his to wear The glory, although there was a partnership Somewhere that a surviving grace in him Remembered; for though the star from which they came Shone far within the dark infinity That was himself, he had not made it shine— Albeit he may have wrought more notably Than might another for its extinguishment. ®

48Ibid., p. 948. 93

The music that Nash hears at first abounds in happiness. Then demons enter and the music changes to joyless tumult and then to sounds of death. Through the sounds, Nash can hear the lamen- tations of all those who have failed to accomplish their dreams.

Their sorrow fills the music. Nash suddenly realizes that the drums of death which he has feared for so long will now be his drums, but he is no longer afraid of death. Indeed, he collects pictures of the dead and dying.

At last, reconciled with death and the past, Nash seeks life.

He is willing to serve God by beating the drums in the street band. He knows that God will remember his unique talent and that he himself will remember it too, and he hopes the friend to whom he has told his story will also remember it. He believes he will no longer suffer over the loss of his talent because he has been 49 honest with himself and with God. Nash is secure in the know- ledge that he was once quite gifted. He also knows that he has heard the great symphony even though a fall down stairs as he searched for paper prevented his writing the music down. He explains to his friend:

. . . Once, for an hour, I lived; and for an hour my cup was full With wine that not a hundred, if a score, Have tasted that are told in history. Having it unconfirmed, I might be mad To-day if a wise God had not been kind, And given roe zeal to serve Ilita with a meaps That you deplore and pardonably distrust.^" 49Ibid., p. 954.

50Ibid., p. 955. 94

Nash is grateful because he believes that God has given him his soul even though he has taken his talent away. He is a changed

man. He accepts the responsibility for his failure, for even

though he has lost his great gift, he believes that he has gained

more than he has lost. He is now an humble person who seeks to

glorify God rather than himself. What he has lost in talent, he

has gained in human understanding. He no longer fears death,

nor does he fear the opinions of other men. Though they would

judge him to be a failure, he considers himself to have found a

very personal success. To his friend, he remains the giant of

talent combined with great suffering. At last the reconciled

Fernando Nash dies again and his friend sinks his ashes in the

sea according to Nash's request.

There are two who fail in public responsibility in Merlin.

They are Merlin and King Arthur. Unlike Captain Craig and Fer-

nando Nash, Merlin has been an outstanding success on the worldly

level. He has been the man behind the throne, and he had made 51 Arthur king. He was the King's teacher and counselor. With

his ability to see into the future, Merlin has warned Arthur of

coming events and problems. He has especially warned him about

Guinevere and Lancelot.

Merlin has been held in awe by the people of Camelot, who

have placed their confidence in him. As long as he is in Came-

lot, they believe that he can solve any problem. He is the

5lIbid., p. 251. 95

unifying element. When Bedivere and La moral;, old friends and

knights of Arthur's, cannot speak to each other of the trouble

in Camelot for fear that one will oil end the other, Merlin's 52 name is their touchstone. Just the rumor that Merlin has come

back to see the King is enough to create excitement and hope in

the hearts of the people of Camelot. He is the father that can

make things right again.

After many years of being at the power center of his world,

Merlin decides to retire. Vivian and the beautiful land, Bro-

celiande in Brittany, call to him. He forsakes his worldly success for a private love and never again comes openly to Camelot.

The last time he comes disguised as a pilgrim, and those who once honored him and professed to love him pass him unnoticed on the , 53 road.

When Merlin begins, the seer is already a failure on the worldly level. He has forsaken Camelot and for this act most of the people of Camelot do not forgive him. He has left his

high position in the guiding of Arthur's kingdom to go to Vivian.

Merlin himself, realizing that his usefulness to the public has 54 ended, calls his new life a "living grave." He tells Arthur:

Buried alive I told you I should be, By love made little and by woman shorn, Like Samson, of ray glory; ... 55

tzo Ibid., p. 242. 53 Ibid., p. 304. 54 Ibid., p. 260. 55Ibid. 9ti

Merlin loves Vivian and for over ten years her love suffices for the loss of his other world. Together they live as if in paradise. They pledge their love with wine heretofore drunk only by kings. Vivian urges Merlin to drink:

. . . These cups That you see coming are for the last there is Of what ray father gave to kings alone, And far from always. You are more than Kings To me; therefore I give it all to you, Imploring you to spare no more of it Than a small cockle-shell would hold for me To pledge your love and mine in.56

In their idyllic land of trees and ferns and flowers, far from the politics of the world, Merlin and Vivian are supremely happy. As the days pass, Merlin's love for Vivian grows. He is content simply to be with her. Slowly his old powers and his concern for Camelot and Arthur begin to disappear. In the be- ginning of their life together, Vivian has insisted that Merlin shave his face and trim his beard and hair. Now the loss of hair becomes a symbol of his loss of power. Vivian wants more of the man and less of the wizard for her lover:

. . . He cannot shake his mane, For now the lion has no mane to shake; The lion hardly knows himself without it, And thinks he has no face, but there's a lady Who says he had no face until he lost it.57

Together the two gifted lovers create a special world for them- selves. Vivian, who also has a magical power to see into the future, warns Merlin that it is he who must hold their world

Ibid., p. 275.

57Ibid., p. 272. 97 apart from the real world and keep them together. She tells him;

Like you, I saw too much; and unlike you I made no kingdom out of what I saw— Or none save this one here that you must rule, Believing you are ruled. I see too far To rule myself. Time's way with you and me Is our own way, in that we are out of Time And out of tune with Time. We have this place, And you must hold us in it or we die.58

Unfortunately for their private world, Merlin's affection

for Arthur is too strong for him to reject his pleas for help.

When Arthur is shaken by the news of Guinevere and Lancelot, he sends Dagonet, Merlin's favorite knight, to ask him to return

to Camelot. Merlin does not want to leave Vivian but he tells her;

"The King believes today, as in his boyhood, That I am Fate; and 1 can do no more Than show again what in his heart he knows," . . .

"This time I go because I made him King, Thereby to be a mirror lor the world; This time I go, but never after this, For I can be no more than what 1 was, And I can do no more than I have done."5^

So Merlin goes once more to Cararlot. His visit only re-

emphasizes his loss of power. Arthur finds him now to be

". . .a slave/ A man of dalliance, and a sybarite.He is

no longer the wizard. Smooth-shaven, in rich robes given him

by Vivian, he is closer to her than he is to King Arthur. His

presence is one more sorrow for the King because Arthur now

5^Ibid•, pp. 280-281.

59Ibid., p. 282.

®°Ibid., p. 249. 98

feels more alone than ever. Arthur admits that part of his trouble is the result of not listening to Merlin, but he cannot reconcile within himself Merlin's present condition. He tells Merlin:

. . . God save us all, Merlin, When you, the seer, the founder, and the prophet, May throw the gold of your immortal treasure Back to the God that gave it, and then laugh Because a woman has you in her arms . . .*

After giving what comfort and advice to King Arthur he can,

Merlin returns to Vivian, but he can no longer recapture his old spirit. Their love fades as he grows old and she remains young.

He is an altered man in her eyes as well as in the world's eyes.

She remains strong while he becomes dependent upon her. This is one circumstance that Vivian cannot tolerate. She tells

Merlin:

The curse on me is that I cannot serve A ruler who forgets that he is king. ^

Meanwhile Merlin cannot bear to have Vivian out of his sight.

At last, this personal relationship, once so idyllic, fails.

Merlin leaves Vivian and Broceliande.

To all appearances Merlin has now failed on the personal level. He is no longer a creator of and counselor to kings and no longer Vivian's lover. Merlin, however, is not a complete failure, for he maintains his o.vn integrity. Realizing that he could stay in Broceliande until he eventually dies from old age, he instead determines to begin one more quest even though he realizes that he will fail a third time. He decides to seek

61 Ibid., p. 251.

62Ibid., p. 292. 99

63 the Light that has revealed the Grail knowing that he will 64 never see the Grail. However, he still believes that there is 65 value in following the Light. With Dagonet ior his companion,

Merlin begins his final journey. To the world he is a ruined, 66 forgotten man, but he does not look upon himself as a failure.

He has had a vision and a special insight. He tells Dagonet:

All this that was to be is what I saw Before there was an Arthur to be King, And so to be a mirror wherein men May see themselves, and pause. If they see not, Or if they do see and they ponder not,— 1 saw; but 1 was neither Fate nor God. 1 saw too much; and this would be the end, Were there to be an end. I saw myself And through the dark that lay beyond myself I saw two fires that are to light the world.b'

A second apparent failure in the poem Merlin is King Arthur

himself. It is true that he begins quite successfully. He is

a king surrounded by gallant knights and he is married to a lovely

queen. As his benefactor and counselor, he has a wizard who can

see into the future. For many years Arthur rules wisely and well.

Then his true royalty is tested. His best friend and favorite

knight falls in love with his wife. Meanwhile, his counselor

has left him to rule alone as he may. Arthur now has the full

responsibility for his own kingdom in his own hands.

King Arthur fails as a ruler because he cannot separate his 63 Ibid., P. 295. 64 Ibid., P. 254. 65 Ibid., P. 295. 66 Ibid., p. 304.

67 Ibid., P. 313. 100 personal feelings from his role as king. The affair of Lancelot

and Guinevere creates a crisis in the kingdom. People begin to

take sides and recall old feuds. Laraorak remembers that his

father killed Gawaine's father and believes that Gawaine may now 68 turn against him. When Lancelot and his men kill their fellow

knights as they rescue Guinevere, the chasm deepens. During

this trouble the King is sick with grief over the loss of his

queen and the loss of his friend.

While King Arthur is failing to uphold his role as king,

many of his knights blame him for the situation Camelot is in.

Lamorak reminds Bedivere that Merlin warned Arthur about Lancelot 69 and Guinevere long before either one was on the scene. Lamorak

also reminds Bedivere that the King has not been faultless him-

self :

The King, if one may say it, set the pace,

And we've two strapping bastards here to prove it.70

Lamorak blames Modred, one of Arthur's illegitimate sons, for

most of the trouble. Modred, who desires the queen and the

crown himself, is trying to destroy Arthur. Bedivere, on the

other hand, blames Lancelot: ... I say that Lancelot Has wrought a potent wrong upon the King And all who serve and recognize the King, And all who follow him and all who love him.71 68Ibid., pp. 248-249.

69Ibid., p. 243.

70Ibid.

71Ibid., p. 244. 101

No matter where the blame lies, all recognize that Arthur has failed in his role as king. Bedivere tells Lamorak: . . . ii a state shall have a king, The king must have the state, and be the state; Or then shall we have neither king nor state, But bones and ashes, and high towers all fallen; And we shall have, where late there was a kingdom, A dusty wreck of what was once a glory— A wilderness whereon to crouch and mourn And moralize, or else to build once more For something better or for something worse. ^ King Arthur's knights realize that Arthur must either forget his personal troubles and resume his role as a strong ruler or be overthrown. Arthur does not seem to be able to regain control of himself. Few believe that he can forget either the queen or Lancelot. Sir Kay tells Bedivere and Lamorak: ... I see With Bedivere the coming of the end . . . for the King I saw today Was not, nor shall he ever be again, The King we knew. I say the King is dead; The man is living, but the King is dead. The wheel is broken.^ In Merlin, Arthur never regains his personal and thus his public strength. He is destroyed by the circumstances of his life. Eventually he follows Gawaine's wishes for revenge. Bedi- vere realizes that the King has let himself become dependent on Gawaine's judgment. He tries to persuade Gawaine to restrain his vengeful counsel: Remember that King Arthur is a king, And where there is a king there is a kingdom.

^Ibid. ^Ibid., p. 248. 102

Is not the kingdom any more to you Than one brief enemy? Would you see it fall And the King with it, for one mortal hate That burns out reason? Gawaine, you are King Today.7 4

But Gawaine will not be restrained. He and the King and Came-

lot make war against Lancelot. King Arthur realizes that Merlin has warned him against such folly and has told him not to leave his kingdom unattended. But Arthur does not follow Merlin's counsel. Merlin has warned that Modred is more worth fearing than is Lancelot. Arthur realizes that he has failed as King of Camelot and that his past actions preclude his ever seeing the Grail. He tells Merlin:

. . . I have enough— Until ray new knight comes to prove and find The promise and the glory of the Grail, Though I shall see no Grail. For I have built On sand and mud, and I shall see no Grail.7^ This insight into his failure is Arthur's only redeeming act.

It saves him from ending a complete failure. Eventually he

and Modred kill each other. Camelot is destroyed because the king has fallen.

King Jasper is another king who fails in a material way.

Like King Arthur, he has built his kingdom on shaky ground.

Unlike King Arthur, King Jasper is the betrayer rather than the

betrayed. When King Jasper begins, the king has reached the pinnacle of his power. He is a self-made king, ruling by right 7 0 of power rather than through inheritance. King Jasper

74Ibid., p. 300.

75Ibid., p. 253.

76Ibid., p. 1399. 103

apparently has everything a man could desire. lie is married to a beautiful woman, he is father of a handsome son, he is wealthy, and he rules other men. His home seems impermeable to disaster.

Unfortunately, Honoria, the queen, envied by most for her beauty, wealth, and position, feels ill-fortune all about her:

. . . Honoria Might have been happier had she never felt The touch of hidden fingers everywhere, On everything, and sometimes all but seen them.77

She tries to tell her husband about her tears but he scoffs at them. Honoria cannot be happy while- she feels destruction about her.

To make matters worse, the king and queen's only son seems to be an irresponsible person. They ponder together what will become of him and of themselves if the son should prove stronger than the father. Honoria's main concern is that her son seems to be living with a young woman to whom he is not officially married. Jasper tries to reassure her by explaining Zoe's objections to a formal marriage:

. . . She is too free and holy, Or so he says, to let herself be bound Or tangled in the flimsy nets or threads Of church and state.7^ Honoria has hoped that the love affair would end.

She cannot approve of the informal marriage between her son and

Zoe. However, her fears are conXirmed when Jasper II brings

77Ibid., p. 1397.

78Ibid., p. 1401.

7^Ibid., p. 1402. 104

Zoe home to live with them. He explains the situation to his parents:

. . . Yes, we are married, Mother—under the stars and under God, As we see deity, and have bound ourselves Therefore as loyally and sacredly Together as if two bishops and their wives Had tucked us in.®®

Honoria leaves the rest of the family after their announce- ment because she cannot accept her son's new wife. The family

is divided. Honoria realizes that her world as she knew it has ended. Since she is a woman, she does not have a voice in determining who shall live in her home. She simply determines

to live apart from the rest of the family.

King Jasper, faced with his fears that his kingdom is nearing destruction and that his family will remain divided,

is bothered by a third fear. He fears eternal punishment for his actions in procuring his kingdom. At one time King Jasper had a partner named Hebron. The two were good friends until

Jasper exploited his friend. In a dream, Hebron tells Jasper:

. . . For there was brain Under my skull, richer than yours. You knew it, Jasper; and you sustained it on your promise, And on your lies, till all of it was yours That you might use.

Jasper profited greatly from Hebron's knowledge. However, he

believed that Hebron's inhibitions would slow him in his attempts

80Ibid., p. 1408.

81Ibid., p. 1429. 105 for wealth and power. In the dream he tells Hebron:

. . . I lied because Your way was never mine. If you had lived, Your freaks of caution, and your hesitations, And your uncertainties--if once you saw Before you what was only yours to take, And hold, and say was yours—would have been clogs And obstacles that would have maddened me,

And might have tempted rae to worse than lies. ^

Jasper's method for dissolving the partnership was uneth-

ical. He knew Hebron was ill and he did not want to murder him outright. In order to avoid the stignu of murder, Jasper left

his friend to die without any way to support; himself or his

family.83 He assured Hebron that wa& no financial pro-

fit in the work they were doing nor would there ever be any

profit.84 Jasper waited until Hebron dix.d in poverty and then

he became a wealthy king.

Now Jasper is beginning to feel guilty. He has reached a

time in his life when he has time to reflect upon his past deeds

and he feels increasingly guilty about his treatment of Hebron.85

His guilt is manifested in a terrible nightmare. In the night-

mare, Jasper is walking through an CPC'IOWF desert in which nothing

can live. He believes that he hinself J.S dead. Even though he

is a king, there is no one left who can help him. He is alone

in the desert and he must walk endlessly without food or water

or rest. If he comes to a rock or boulder he must climb over it

82Ibid., p. 1429.

83Ibid.

84Ibid .

85Ibid., p. 1419. 106 rather than go around it. His way becomes increasingly rocky. At last he sees another person in the desert and he is overjoyed to find a companion in his misery. He rushes to overtake the stranger only to discover that the man is Hebron. To Jasper, Hebron is a changed person. He seems scornful and crafty and seems to hate Jasper. He begins to follow Jasper, reminding him of their former friendship. Eventually Hebron tires and persuades Jasper to carry him on his shoulders rather than leave him to die a second time. As they climb over the rocks, Hebron reminds Jasper of his evil past. He reminds him of the ambition and greed which caused him to forsake Hebron and others who had helped him achieve power and wealth. Hebron reminds Jasper that his accomplishments gave Jasper the means to success. As his punish- ment continues, Jasper admits the truth in Hebron's charges. Hebron's ill-will seems to make him heavier for Jasper to carry. Gradually Hebron changes into the gold that Jasper denied him. He tells Jasper;

. . . Yes, I am changing into gold. I am the gold that you said would be mine— Before you stole it, and became a king.^" Jasper, the king, begs Hebron to have mercy on him but Hebron is as unrelenting as Jasper's feelings of guilt. Finally Jasper and Hebron reach a chasm filled with water. In his dream Jasper sees his son and Zoe laughing at him in his predicament. They

86Xbid., p. 1430. 107 beckon £01* him to jump the chasm and join them but Jasper knows that his past deeds prohibit him from going to them. Hebron grows heavier. At last Jasper leaps across the chasm and is freed of his burden. He discovers then that Zoe and his son both reject him. They turn on him with loathing. Because of their rejection of him, Jasper feels himself falling into a bottom .lees chasm.

When Jasper wakes he is an ill man. It takes him a long

time to recover from his dream. Before he has fully recovered,

a fourth problem adds to his sense of impending failure. Young

Hebron appears in his kingdom; he has come to averse his father.

King Jasper and Honoria become increasingly afraid. They can

no longer pretend that all will end well because both of them

know why the young Hebron has come. Young Hebron comes to visit

King Jasper. He refers many times to Jasper's wealth and his

dead father's life of poverty. He also refers to the former

friendship between the two men. When Hebron leaves, Jasper knows

that his visitor is plotting his doom. Inhibited by his feelings

of guilt, King Jasper discovers that he at last is powerless to 87 prevent the young man from destroying him and his vast kingdom.

Jasper is saddened as he watches the approaching end of his king-

dom. However, all he can do about it is watch it falling into

ruin: The king had no more dreams. He saw without them, And with no useless need of asking longer What they were doing, those unceasing hands That long had haunted the foreboding queen,

87Ibid., p. 1456. 108

Warning her of their work. He saw them now, Pulling his world around him, and his house, Dimly and irretrievably to pieces. Leaving on everything an unclean dust That he could feel and could not wash away.88 As if Jasper's problems were not sufficient to make of him a very troubled man, he is faced with a fifth problem. The fifth problem is Zoe. Since he met Zoe, King Jasper's attitudes toward her have been ambiguous. In the beginning Jasper permitted Zoe to come between him and Honoria because he would not ask her to leave their home even though he knew that Honoria wanted her to leave. He realizes that their home is the whole world to Honoria, but he will not request that Zoe not stay with them. When Hon- oria threatens to leave herself, Jasper tells her: . . . you are not going away. See where you are. Take one full look, and see This one place that is yours. Take one more look And say how long you would live anywhere else, Or wish to live, without it, and all alone. It is your home, your world. You cannot leave it.89 In spite of Honoria's feelings, and even though Zoe's presence means that Honoria absents herself from most of the family activities to avoid Zoe, the king insists that Zoe remain with them. As time passes, Zoe sometimes calls Jasper her father and he speaks of her as his daughter. He dreams that he really is her father. Zoe, who never knew her real parents, was found and reared by a wise old man. In Jasper's dream Zoe says;

88Ibid., p. 1456. 89Ibid., p. 1440. 109

You know you are ray father, and you knew it When first you found that I was in your house, And there to stay, because you are ray father. Without you, I should never have been born. Without you and your folly, and your shrewd eyes That saw so much at once that they saw nothing, Time would have had no need or place for me, Or for the coming trouble I must behold Because ypu gave to me unwittingly My being. In addition to paternal feelings for Zoe which arise somewhat from his own feelings that his wrong doing and dishonesty are responsible for her existence, King Jasper also feels something carnal. When she passionately kisses hira, he is further desirous Q1 of her even though he realizes that she is married to his son. In his dream, Zoe's promise of love encourages Jasper to leap across the deep pit in order to win her approval and love. Jasper tells Hebron: For God's love, Hebron, let me go to herI I feel a meaning flaming in her eyes For me that I must read. And there's a promise Of more than I possess. Hebron, have mercy'. Leave me, and let me leap across this place And hold her in my arms and say she's mine.9^ But when King Jasper reaches Zoe, what he thought was love changes into hate, and she stabs him, creating a wound that will not heal. On still another level, Zoe represents the truth to King Jasper. After she has entered his house, she becomes a type of conscience for him. He sees more clearly the evil acts he has

90Ibid., p. 1434. qi Ibid., p. 1417. 92 Ibid., p. 1432. 110 committed, his greed, and his ill-gotten wealth. Zoe seems to know everything. She knows that the king is afraid of what is coming. Meanwhile Honoria is afraid of Zoe, partly because the king becomes so pliant in her hands. She begs Jasper to turn Zoe away, but Jasper has become too fond of Zoe to let her go. He tells Honoria:

But I have told her that I find in her The one among the daughters of the world That I would have called mine. She will not go;

She cannot go. I shall not let her go.93

The king and Zoe become close companions because both know that

Jasper's kingdom is disintegrating. Zoe is King Jasper's only source of comfort as he watches the failure of his kingdom.

King Jasper's kingdom continues to crumble. The king, un- able to halt the slow disintegration of all that he has created, 94 senses his power slipping away from him. Honoria, after telling her husband how much she has loved him and after forgiving him

for any wrongs he may have committed, commits suicide rather than 95 watch the kingdom fail. Before she kills herself, her son and

Zo# and the king urge her to leave and then Zo6* and young Jasper urge the king to leave. Neither will leave their home because

the kingdom is an inextricable part of their lives. King Jasper

begins to believe that Zoe's mission was to reveal to him the 93 g Ibid., p. 1439.

94Ibid., p. 1456.

95Ibid., pp. 1470-1471 Ill ending of bis reign. He is grateful to her because her coming has made the failing of his kingdom easier to bear: . . . King Jasper sighed For gratitude to Zoe that she had come So far to tell him the best way to learn That his indomitable reign was ending. Without her presence, and without the wound Of his awakening that her knife had made, Approaching hours would be enormities Of a slow and unendurable dissolution g6 That would be fire to feel and death to know. Zoe's coming has brought to King Jasper a brief realization of the evil deeds he has committed by exploiting another's talent and seizing the resulting wealth for himself simply because he possessed the power and cunning to outwit his partner. He realizes that he has been excessively greedy not to share his great wealth and power with others. They become valueless to him. In fact 97 he calls them "trash." This final awakening is the only re- demption King Jasper enjoys. He can watch his kingdom fall as he admits the truth about his past actions to himself. Zo&'s presence is the only other solace the king finds. With his wife dead and his lack of interest in saving a kingdom he now believes was evilly erected, King Jasper sits and watches the kingdom he has spent his life creating fall apart. One night as he watches the buildings below him, they all seem to catch on fire. King Jasper dies as he watches them burn. The fires have been started by young Hebron. He soon appears inside the castle to ^Ibid., p. 1458. 97Ibid., p. 1447. 112

gloat over his destruction. He murders young Jasper, hoping that Jasper's parents can watch his killing of their only son, Hebron plans to take Zoe away with him because he believes that she has been repelled by the actions of King Jasper and will be anxious to go with him. Zoe finds Hebron's indiscriminate destruction repulsive, however, and she foils his plans by stabbing him. Hebron sees briefly the folly of his own solution to dishonesty, and he urges Zoe to flee the castle which he has had planted with explosives in case all of his other attempts at homicide fail. Zoe has no desire to perish with the others. She alone escapes to follow her own solitary way.

Failure in ambition is the theme of Amaranth. Of all of Edwin Arlington Robinson's major works, Amaranth has within it the greatest number of human failures. The poem's setting is a strange place between earth and hell which the characters in the poem call the "wrong world." It is inhabited by people who have been ambitious but have striven for success in an area incompatible with their true talents. While those about them recognize their lack of talent in their chosen fields, the people themselves continue to believe that the rest of the world is blind or ignorant while they are gifted with a special insight into their own work and can better appraise its true value.

There are many characters in Amaranth, but the central figure is Fargo. Fargo is a person who once believed that he would be- come a great artist. He painted pictures for many years and then he realized that he had been following the wrong profession. 113

He discovered himself in the wrong world. By acknowledging his

lack of artistic talent, Fargo managed to escape from his futile existence. When Amaranth begins, Fargo has destroyed all but 98 one of his extensive collection of his own paintings. Ten years have elapsed since he destroyed his art, and the one pic- ture remaining reminds him of the day he burned all the rest of his paintings and felt for the first time that he could remember 99 that he was a free man. The picture that is left is neither good nor bad. Like all of his other paintings, it has no parti- cular merit. Fargo burned his art so that he would not become a failure: . . . He had surrendered, So not to greet himself among the slain Before he should be dead. He was alive, And was content. No bells of destiny Frightened or vexed him with recrimination Or with remorse; . . .100 Fargo is proud of himself for being able to accept his lack of artistic talent. He has faced the truth about himself and has survived. He knows that many others live who will not accept the truth about their own talents, and as a result, they will lead unhappy lives or lives of hypocrisy. He knows others who have been destroyed by the truth about their own talents. As Fargo continues to think about failure, he falls asleep and dreams. 98Ibid., p. 1311. "ibid. 10QIbid., p. 1312. 114

In Fargo's dream he finds himself in a strange world where light is only half-light and where all is still. He remembers that he has been in this motionless and silent world before:

... He had come back Once more to a lost world where all was gone But ghostly shapes that had no life in them, And to the wrong world he would once have left By the wrong door.^

Fargo remembers that this world is the one in which he once questioned his own goals in life. Here he had been made to rea-

lize that he had followed the wrong profession and that he could

free himself and return to the right world if he would only

acknowledge his failure as a painter and follow another line of work. At that time he decided to accept the truth concerning 102 his meager talent and become a pump-builder, a task in which

he feels more competent than he ever felt as an artist. Now in

the wrong world again, he is disturbed by the stillness of the place because he believes that the silence indicates death. He 103 is enveloped in hopelessness and thinks of committing suicide.

He is interrupted in his contemplation of the dark, still water

in front of him by Amaranth, who forbids him to kill himself

at that moment. Amaranth is one of the main forces in this

in-between world. He is not God nor is he an ordinary person.

H5I Ibid. 102 Ibid., p. 1339. 103Ibid., p. 1313. 115

Amaranth has strange eyes that seem to be composites of the eyes 104 of all men and women who have ever existed. The eyes are ex- tremely bright. Men who look into them find the truth about themselves reflected back at them. Amaranth seems to have a special affection for Fargo because he has been responsible for Fargo*s discovering the truth about himself. He is surprised to see Fargo in the wrong world again, but he agrees to show him more of this strange world than Fargo was able to see on his first journey. Amaranth tells Fargo: . . . For those who damn themselves By coming back, voices are not enough. They must have ears and eyes to knew for certain Where they have come, and to what punishment.105 Amaranth explains to Fargo that two kinds of people live in this wrong world. There are those who have accepted their failure and are reconciled to it, and there are those who have not ac- knowledged the truth about themselves; and because they are un- aware of their true lack of talent in the tasks they have chosen, they remain content as long as they are able to escape facing the truth. He himself has two tasks that he must perform. He must save those people who can face their own failures and destroy those who discredit or fear him and the truth about themselves. Some people look at Amaranth and die and some people look at Amaranth and neither live nor die but merely exist. A few look at Amaranth and return to live better, more complete lives.

104Ibid., p. 1315.

105Ibid., p. 1316. 116

Finally Fargo, seeing no alternative open to him, agrees to follow Amaranth on a journey through the wrong world. They go through a land of graves to the Tavern of the Vanquished. Fargo remembers that he has been in this dimly lit tavern before, but his own ambition and ignorance had prevented his seeing it clearly then. Antique chairs and tables which have endured much use fill the place. The room is crowded with people but none can see as well as Fargo where they are. Amaranth explains to Fargo: And you will ask of me in vain to tell you Why the rest cannot see. Some of them will; And some of them, caring no more to live Without the calm of their concealed misgivings, Will die; while others who care more for life Without a spur than for no life at all, Will somehow live. While he is in the tavern, Fargo meets many of the inhabi- tants of the wrong world. They represent various professions. They are Evensong, a composer; Atlas, an artist; Edward Figg, a lawyer; Dr. Styx, a physician; Pascal Flax, a clergyman; and Pink, a poet. Fargo notices that the men are not all would-be artists like himself. Apparently anyone can fool himself into thinking that he should follow one line of work and creativity when in reality he should have followed another. All of the -.people in the tavern have one quality in common in that they are all failures. Some have looked into Amaranth's eyes and some have not.

106Ibid., p. 1318. 117

Evensong, the composer, has looked into Amaranth's eyes and has seen the truth reflected in them. He once believed that he would become a great composer. He wrote many songs but none were worth remembering. He plays a song for Fargo and his friends which they listen to politely. Then he tells Fargo:

... It sounds like nothing now, But once it sounded as if God had made it. Therefore I say, beware of Amaranth . . .

Evensong now composes music merely from habit. Whenever anyone dies, he composes a dirge, and whenever anyone is particularly sad, he composes a song to cheer him. He seems to hope that some day he will compose music worth remembering, but he knows that he will not be able to.

Unlike Evensong, Pink, the poet, has never looked into

Amaranth's eyes. He believes that his poems are destined to be immortal. Evensong describes Pink for Fargo: ... He cuts and sets his words With an exotic skill so scintillating That no two proselytes who worship them Are mystified in the same way exactly.108

Of course Pink cannot see the truth about his own poems. He is

secure in his faith that they will become immortal regardless

of what his companions think of them. He is not particularly

disturbed by the fact that the others do not appreciate his poetry.

He prefers to presume that their lack of understanding is their

deficiency and not his own.

107Ibid., p. 1320.

108Ibid., p. 1321. 118

Like Pink, Atlas, the painter, has never looked into Amaranth's eyes. Atlas was a stevedore before he became a painter. He is a large man who loves color and is not interested in line or form. Other viewers ridicule Atlas' pictures because they cannot tell what he has painted after.he has finished painting a picture, but Atlas is always quite pleased with his paintings.

Others in the group cannot face the truth about themselves.

All have chosen professions for which they possessed no real propensity. Reverend Flax became a preacher because he liked to speak in public and because he enjoyed the public's regard, but he soon discovered that there was nothing in which he could be- 109 lieve. Eventually he had to leave his job because he had found no joy or faith about which he could preach. Doctor Styx might have been successful in many other professions, but he has failed as a doctor because he lacked both the desire and 110 necessary interest to be a physician. Edward Figg is thought by all to have been a good and honest man, but his temperament 111 was not suited to following the profession of law. Some of

these men have encountered Amaranth's eyes and they have partially

faced the truth about themselves. However, most of them still

linger in the past, worrying about their own failures. Occa-

sionally one who faces the truth and accepts his past errors

109Ibid., p. 1321.

110Ibid., p. 1320.

111ltoid. 119 manages to escape into the real world. All would seem to want out of the wrong world because no one seems to be happy there as they all continually argue among themselves. Some argue about the amount of talent which they believe they possess, and some argue about what they think they accomplished in their past lives.

Some of these failures would prefer to be left alone to dream and let their dreams take the place of true accomplishments.

Amaranth explains dreaming to all of them:

. . . Dreams have a kindly way, Sometimes, if they are not explored or shaken, Of lasting glamorously. Many have lasted All a man's life, sparing him, to the grave, His value and his magnitude

All of the major characters in Amaranth sooner or later confront the truth. The older men, Evensong, Flax, Figg, and

Styx resign themselves to the truth while they ruminate over their pasts. The younger men, Pink and Atlas, confront the truth in their own individual ways. Pink insists that he has faith in his work and is not afraid of Amaranth's eyes. He challenges

Amaranth to let him see into his eyes. When he looks he is shocked to discover that the others were correct when they assessed his poems as mediocre. Pink decides upon discovering the truth about his talent and his work that the only course left to him is to commit suicide. Pink hangs himself and all of the men go to see what he has done. He appears to be dead, so Even- song plays a dirge that he has composed in his honor. Pink is 119 Ibid., p. 1324. 120 not particularly pleased with the dirge and he tells his friends that he only wants to be left alone. He tells them that he cannot help them, nor can he save them. He assures those who are watching that he can see now that there is more to anyone's profession than any of them have ever realized, and he wishes that he could impart some wisdom or give advice for them to follow, but he 113 knows of no way in which he could deepen their understanding. Pink, the poet, is not the only one to be completely devas- tated by the truth. Elaine Amelia Watchman shares much the same fate. She is a writer who has spent her whole life writing. In fact, she tells Evensong and his friends that her entire life 114 is to be found in the books that she has written. She only wishes to be left alone so that she may continue to write. Evensong wishes that she had never become a writer and that he had never become a composer. He believes that they have both wasted their lives. He knows that many like himself are too old when they discover they have been striving in the wrong world to do anything to correct the situation. He tells his friends, "The sorrow of it is that only rarely/ Are we to know, until we 115 are too old/ Or too unstrung to care, that we are here." Evensong wishes that he and Elaine Amelia Watchman could escape from this wrong world. But she is not interested in Evensong, or loveI I, qo r companionship because she is obsessed with the idea Ibid., p. 1335. 114 Ibid., p. 1342. II !i Ibid., p. 1341. 121 that her writing will live forever. She demands to see Amaranth's eyes so that she will know what the future holds for her and her books. All wonder why she wishes to look, since she is content to write. They plead with her to consider her present content- ment and let the future and what it holds for her books alone. However, Watchman insists on looking into Amaranth's eyes. When she sees her fate, she is devastated. Evensong tries to comfort her by reading from one of her collection of books, but when he opens the book, the pages have turned to dust. As she sees this happening, E. A. Watchman turns to dust also. Evensong scoops her dust from the floor and seals it in an envelope to 116 carry with him. A third character who cannot accept the truth about himself and his failure is Atlas, the painter. Atlas, too, believes that his creations will be immortal. He paints one picture of a blue horse. Those who see the picture do not recognize that it is a painting of a horse, nor do they recognize anything else in the picture. It is Atlas' private vision and his skill has not communicated his vision to others. He is proud of his new painting and believes that the world will vindicate him even though his friends do not. The group of failures continue to criticize the painting and Atlas fusses with them over their criticism. Doctor Styx tells Atlas: I am less exercised and less excited Because your horse is blue, than I am, Atlas, Because you see it and still see a horse.

116 Ibid., p. 1347. 117 Ibid., p. 1363. 122

Atlas believes that he can see more than his friends see because they are failures and he is not. He is arrogant in his denial of their appraisal of him. He tells them: You're all alike. You all think I'm a fool. Because God gave me vision to see more Than you know how to see, there's nothing left For you to do but laugh. The fool's old laugh At everything that's not ^et cracks and cobwebs Will never frighten me. Atlas continues to rave, insisting that he will have a place among the master painters. Eventually Atlas, too, demands to see Amaranth's eyes. Of course the others warn him against looking, but Atlas is convinced that he has nothing to fear.

However, when he looks into the eyes and sees the truth about his work reflected back at him, Atlas collapses. Then he gathers his remaining strength, slashes all of his paintings and tells his watching friends that as he slashes them it is as if he were 119 cutting into himself. Believing that he no longer has any reason to live now that he knows the truth about his artistic 120 talent, Atlas steps behind a screen and kills himself. He cannot live knowing that he is really a failure like his com- panions . Not all of Robinson's characters in Amaranth accept death as the only solution to failure in their pursuits. Some try to escape their failures. One of these is Ipswich, the inventor. Fargo discovers Ipswich sitting by the grave of his wife. He has failed twice—once in his relationship to his wife and once 118Ibid., p. 1365.

119Ibid., p. 1369. 120 Ibid., p. 1371. 123 in his choice of profession. His wife died from poverty and from his neglect of her. Ipswich admits that he loved his wife but 121 he confesses that he loved science more. Ipswich was enamored of his profession. He wants Fargo to understand how it could have been so important to him. He tells Fargo: ... I have never Invented anything that you have heard of, But God, the dreams I've hadl When I was young, Visions already of quick miracles, That would be mine, were like a fire inside me, Set there to burn with God's immortal fuel Till all my dreams were deeds, and my ambitions A time-defying monument of glory For me and for my science, and for my toil In darkness where the light was always coming For men, my brothers.122

Unfortunately for Ipswich, just as he would almost complete an invention, someone else would invent what he had been working on for years. This happened again and again.

Ipswich wants to escape from the wrong world with Fargo.

He is an old man who believes that the voice of truth has forgotten him. He thinks that he can slip away from the wrong world where he has experienced so many disappointments without having to accept his past failures. He is still dreaming, in- venting now new ways to escape the wrong world.

Ipswich disappears for a time and Fargo wanders away from the graves that have been all around him and back to the silent harbor which he saw in the beginning of his dream. Suddenly the silence is broken by many old men and women screaming and

121Ibid., p. 1352.

122Ibid., p. 1351. 124 laughing and drinking a strange concoction invented for them by

Ipswich. Ipswich cotnes to persuade Fargo to drink the liquid and embark on a journey with them. He believes that he has in- vented a liquor that erases all the past failures of those who drink it. He has found an ancient ship on which to sail and a crew of misfits to man it. Fargo is sorely tempted to go with the old dreamer, for he, too, is tired of being in the wrong world, and Ipswich promises:

Take it (the drinkj my son, . . . and come with me, Where we shall be defrauded never more By the grief-plundered and pernicious dreams That have defeated us.123

Fargo seizes the proffered drink, but before he drinks the liquid within the glass, he realizes that he will not dis- cover the truth by drinking a supposedly magic liquid, and he throws the glass away. The ship sails without him but it is loaded with scores of other passengers celebrating their escape from the wrong world. However, before it has made its way out of the harbor, it explodes and disappears into the depths of the water. Amaranth, who has watched the entire procedure and who takes credit for saving Fargo from sharing

the fate of the ship's passengers by letting him realize the

truth before embarking, explains to Fargo that there is no easy

way to escape from the truth about oneself. One cannot sneak 124 away from the truth.

123Ibid., p. 1357.

124Ibid., p. 1359. 125

The deaths of Ipswich, Atlas, Pink, and Elaine Amelia Watchman have caused the rest of the inhabitants of the wrong world to think more consciously about failure. They agree that failure for most of them has been the result of striving in a profession for which they were not suited. Early in the poem Amaranth tells them: There are physicians here who cannot hold them {failures] , Or cure themselves of an incessant wound That now no retrospect of their tuition In a wrong school shall heal; there are divines Who long ago lost their divinity And are still feeling for a solid station; There are philosophers who delve and starve To say again what others have said better; There are deceived inventors who still grope For bridges that were never built for them Between their dreams and their discrepancies; And with all these there are as many others As there are lives that are not to be lived— Not here—but should have been, or many of them. And well enough, had they been lived elsewhere.*25 Once a person has failed, the problem of what he may. do about his failure presents itself. He may remain ignorant. He may never question whether what he is doing is worth while or of any value. He can simply refuse to listen to the voice within him that tells him his accomplishments are not of the highest caliber. He may refuse to listen to the voice of Ama- ranth, who speaks the truth in telling him that he has failed. Most of the inhabitants of the wrong world agree that this last possibility may happen. If a person does recognize his failure, then he may go ahead and face the truth about himself. He

125Ibid., pp. 1331-1332. 126 probably will not be pleased by what he finds in Amaranth's eyes, but he can look into them without wanting to kill himself for what he finds in them. This type of failure may be too old or too tired to do anything about his failure. This is primarily what has happened to Evensong. He asks Fargo to remember him as "one fixed here in this place/ Because he saw too late to go 126 away." A person may become too accustomed to laziness and uselessness to correct his failure when he recognizes it. Doctor

Styx is a good example of this type of failure. He no longer cares whether or not he is a good physician. He tells his friends ... As for seeking it (the mystery oi success) , Or flying from here in a malignant rage Of disillusionment—well, I suspect I'm too indifferent, or we'll say too lazy. Say what you will; I shall not writhe, or suffer. I'm so inured to uselessness, maybe, That moral torture and eternal doubt That others feel leave me uninterested.^^ Many cannot accept failure with the detachment of Doctor

Styx. There are many who, when confronted with failure, kill themselves. Pink and Atlas are two who commit suicide when they realize their own failures. Of course some people try to sneak away from failure by trying to pretend that they have not really failed. Ipswich, the inventor, tried to escape from the truth about himself and his life. Occasionally someone listens to

Amaranth and acknowledges his own failure. If he cat) then begin another line of work and forsake the profession for which he had

126Ibid., p. 1391.

127Ibid., p. 1386. 127 no talent, he will become a free and happy person. Fargo is the only one in Amaranth who manages to face the truth and do some- thing constructive about it.

Though they do not finally succeed, several characters in

Amaranth gain new insight into their own and others' failures.

Figg, Styx, and Flax all would have once judged a man harshly for succumbing to failure. Now all of these agree that one cannot judge another man concerning his reaction to failure. Flax tells them:

. . . There was a time IVhen 1 thought words were life. There was a time When 1 might have calumniated Atlas, Branding him as a culprit and a sinner To let himself be crushed under the weight Of his house falling round him. But the God That is within me tells me now that Atlas Lived in another house that was not mine, And that I am not told what might have happened If my house had been his. We are too brisk In our assumption of another's lightness Under a burden we have never felt, And too remiss in calling ourselves liars For saying so well so much more than we know.128

Amaranth is pleased that his charges are learning even in the wrong world. He believes that they are now using more dis- crimination in judging others. He hopes that they will continue to learn until they are no longer sorry to be in the wrong world.

Amaranth acknowledges to Fargo that he can hold him no longer.

He is free to return to the real world because he is not afraid to admit that he has failed as an artist. He might very well succeed in other work. Amaranth knows that Fax-go returned to

128Ibid., pp. 1387-1388. 128 the wrong world to learn more about failure. Fargo returns to reality a free man.

Failure in the material or public world can occur on either the worldly or the personal level although for the most part it occurs on the worldly level and is apparent to the general observer. This type of failure can be a material failure in which the character is unable to supply even the most basic physical needs. In Robinson's major works, the best known material failure is Captain Craig. He had tried to support himself, and then he has tried to beg, but he has failed at both pursuits.

Failure in the material world can occur in the realm of art and entertainment when a character who was once immensely talented has failed to achieve anything of importance. Such is the case of Fernando Nash, who once thought he would achieve lasting fame with the music he would compose. Like Captain

Craig, Nash has failed in the material sense in that he can barely supply his own physical needs.

Not all of those who fail are unable to amass material goods. There are some who are powerful. King Arthur, Merlin, and King Jasper are three examples. These men still fail in their various responsibilities to their fellow men. Even Mer- lin, who is wise and goodhearted, deserts Camelot and her troubles to find the road to Broceliande and Vivian. Though he does not exploit his people for selfish purposes as do King

Arthur and King Jasper, he cannot be held blameless for for- saking his duty to his people. 129

Amaranth is crowded with many failures in the material world, There are those who have failed to gain wealth, those who have failed to fulfill their dreams of accomplishment in art or enter- tainment , and those who have failed to accept their responsibi- lities toward others. Especially there are those who have failed to accept the truth concerning their own failures.

Failure in the material world can occur in many different areas of a person's life. Y/hen a character fails, he can either accept the truth about himself and try to repair the damage done to himself and others or he can continue to follow his own ruinous path. The best possible result of human failure is to try to gain some spiritual insight into both oneself and the world. CHAPTER IV

THE THEME OF FAILURE IN THE POETRY OF ROBINSON: A RESUME*

Many writers have dealt with the concepts of failure in Edwin Arlington Robinson's life and poetry. A study of the biographies about Robinson reveals that all have mentioned failures that marked the lives of Robinson, his family, and his friends. These failures were of many types. Certainly there was material failure in that Robinson's family's fortune rose to moderate wealth only to crash and reduce the family to abject poverty in which the poet himself often did not have enough to eat, a comfortable place to sleep, or warm clothes to wear. Moreover, each of the Robinson brothers endured fail- ure in his chosen profession. Dean failed as a physician; Her- man failed as an investment counselor; and E. A. experienced a great deal of failure as a poet. In addition to material and professional failure, each of the three also failed to some extent in his personal relationships with others. Herman could not maintain a happy marriage and E. A. Robinson never attempted marriage at all. In addition to trouble with love relationships, the younger brothers at least were not exactly cordial to each other during certain periods of their lives. Of course, as his letters testify, E. A. Robinson did maintain many personal 130 131 relationships with friends throughout his life. All three brothers also struggled with personal temptations such as drugs and alcohol and failed to conquer these temptations in varying degrees. Thus Edwin Arlington Robinson, from a per- sonal standpoint, was well acquainted with the many aspects of failure throughout his life.

Many critics have considered ways in which Edwin Arling- ton Robinson dealt with failure in his poetry. Some mention failure only briefly, as does Yvor Winters. A few like Ells- worth Barnard and Hoyt C. Franchere group the failures into families or categories. Barnard does the most extensive grouping, finding similarities in those who seem to fail as others view them but really succeed in areas not apparent to the casual observer; in those who seem to succeed according to the world's standards but who fail privately because their lives are empty; in those who experience neither outward nor inward success; in those whose lives are marked by some ironic incongruity such as having their dreams outdistance their accomplishments; and in those who struggle to achieve in an area unsuited to their talents. A few critics and biographers connect many events and people in Robinson's poetry to those in his life. Chard Powers Smith leads the field in this group. He connects Dean with many protagonists in the poems, Herman with many of the antagonists in the poems, and gives Emma, Herman's wife, the feminine lead in most of the poems. 132

Concepts of failure in Edwin Arlington Robinson's longer poems seem to be divided into two main categories. There are failures that occur in human relationships and there are fail- ures that occur in the material world or in public life.

Failures in human relationships are subdivided into relation- ships in friendship and relationships in love. Friendship, a relationship between two people of the same sex and always the male sex in the longer poems, is an important and enduring association. Often it lasts longer than any other personal relationship a man enjoys. It is not to be treated casually or with dishonor. Failure in friendship is a serious matter. Perhaps it is at its most dangerous height in Lancelot when Gawaine, heartsick at the irresponsible conduct of his friend Lancelot, urges King Arthur to war. Certainly it is most terrifying in Avon's Harvest when Avon, having rejected his friend's overtures to friendship years earlier, dies for fear of his revenge. Lancelot, Tristram, and Penn-Raven illustrate the damage that can be done with disloyalty in friendship as they seduce their friends1 wives. Friendship is injured almost beyond repair when Nightingale and Malory love the same woman in The Glory of the Nightingales, and the same problem arises again in the friendship of Matthias and Timberlake in Matthias at the Door. Love in the longer poems involves relationships between men and women. Love may or may not be as important as friendship 133 depending on the situation and the people involved. Failure in love occurs for many reasons. In some cases the initial af- fection was one-sided. Usually the man loved the woman more than she loved him. This problem is found in the love between Matthias and Natalie, Roman Bartholow and Gabrielle, King Arthur and Guinevere, and King Mark and Isolt. The problem is com- pounded when the woman has married for material gain. Often the woman in the relationship confesses later that she really loved someone else more than the man she married, which adds hypocrisy to her fault of greed. In the longer poems, Natalie has loved Tiraberlake, Guinevere has loved Lancelot, and the dark Isolt has loved Tristram. This type of dishonesty in love is fatal to the relationship. A few men are loved by two women in Robinson's major works, and they mishandle their love to suit their own selfish desires. Tristram is loved by two Isolts and deserts the fair Isolt to pursue the dark one even though the dark one is married to his uncle. Talifer is loved by both Karen and Althea with near fatal results for all three. Any time selfish motives enter into love, the relationship is doomed to failure. Men occasionally select wives that can lend prestige to them through their great beauty. Thus Caven- der married Laramie but cannot be happy with her because he cannot treat her as a human being. Laramie is not alone in feeling that her husband views her as a possession rather than a person. Gabrielle and Natalie share this feeling with hex'. Needless to say, this type of thoughtlessness is quite harmful 134 to enduring love. Failure in love results in violent emotions and acts. Talifer almost murders Karen, Cavender does murder Laramie, and Natalie and Gabrielle both commit suicide when love fails. The second category into which concepts of failure fall is failure in the material world or in public life. This type of failure may be marked by inability to gain material goals of the most basic sort, lack of achievement in a realm of special talent, or avoidance of one's responsibilities to one's fellow men. Fernando Nash in The Man Who Died Twice and Captain Craig are material failures who live on a subsistence level. Neither can manage to earn a living. Nash also fails in the realm of fulfilling his special talent in that he never writes the great symphonies for which he believes he was destined. Though their talents are not so awesome as is that of Nash, Doctor Styx, Reverend Flax, Figg, Pink, Atlas, and Elaine Amelia Watchman are similar failures because they, like Nash, cannot command and develop their real talents and thus they strive to accom- plish their dreams in the wrong world.

Failure in the material world can become inability to up- hold one's responsibilities. King Arthur, King Jasper, and Merlin fail in this area of accomplishment. King Arthur cannot forget his own personal disappointments in love and friendship long enough to guide his kingdom safely through troubled times. As a result his kingdom falls. Merlin leaves the kingdom he 135

has established even though he has foreseen its trouble and knows that the people rely on him for guidance and wise coun- sel. King Jasper cannot amend the wrongs of dishonesty and deceit on which he built his kingdom of wealth and power and must watch it burn before his eyes. Thus failure occurs in two main categories—personal relationships and the material world. Sometimes failure is generally apparent. Where this is so, failure has taken place on a worldly level often in the realms of material power or in a field of entertainment. Sometimes failure is observed by only one or two people or perhaps by only the one failing. When this happens, failure has occurred on a private level, perhaps in a personal relationship or against some temptation. Few characters endure total failure because they earn a special insight into their own hearts and minds or into the machinations of the world. Captain Craig is the best example of a character who has gained a vision of a higher plane than the one on which he failed. Merlin, Lancelot, Malory, Bartholow, Matthias, King Mark, and to some extent Cavender gain a special spiritual awareness that compensates for their worldly failures. Even King Arthur and King Jasper are granted some self-knowledge. Thus the failures are not condemned to total daiiiness and des- pair. They may not reach the goals they sought but they are compensated with visions of the truth about themselves and their pursuits. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Anderson, Wallace L., Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Critical Introduction, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 19677

Barnard, Ellsworth, .Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Critical Study, New York", The Macmillan Company, 1952.

Coxe, Louis, Edwin Arlington Robinson: The Life of Poetry, New York, Western Publishing Company, 1969.

Franchere, Hoyt C., Edwin Arlington Robinson, New York, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1963.

Neff, Emery, Edwin Arlington Robinson, William Sloane Associates, 194FI

Robinson, Edwin Arlington, Collected Poems of Edwin Arling- ton Robinson, New York, The Macroi 11 an Company ,

Edwin Arlington Robinson's Let- tors to Edith Brower, edited by Richard Gary, Cambridge, The BeTknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1968.

, Untriangulated Stars: Letters of Edwin Arlington Robinson to Harry De Forrest Smith, T"8 90-1905, edited by Denhain Sutcliffe, Cambridge, Har- vard University Press, 1947.

Robinson, W. R., Edwin Arlington Robinson: A Poetry of the Act, Cleveland, The Press of Western Reserve Univer- sity, 1967.

Smith, Chard Powers, Where the Light Falls: A Portrait of Edwin Arlington Robinson, New York, The Macraillan Company^ 1965.

Winters, Yvor, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Norfolk, Connect- icut, Vail-Ballou Press, 1946.

136 137

Articles

Carpenter, F. I., "Tristram the Transcendent," New England Quarterly, XI (September, 1938), 501-523.

Crowder, R., "Here Are the Men . . . ; E. A. Robinson's Male Character Types," New England Quarterly, XVIII (September, 1945), 346-367. Dauner, L., "Avon and Cavender: Two Children of the Night," American Literature, XIV (March, 1942), 55-65. , "Pernicious Rib: E. A. Robinson's Concept of Feminine Character," American Literature, XV (May, 1943), 139-158. Stovall, Floyd, "Optimism Behind Robinson's Tragedies," American Literature, X (March, 1938), 1-23. Wagoner, H. H., "E. A. Robinson and the Cosmic Chill: With Poem Children of the Night," New England Quarterly, XIII (March, 1940), 65-84.