Edwin Arlington Robinson's Interpretation of Tristram
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/ EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON’S INTERPRETATION OF TRISTRAM BY MARY EDNA MOLSEED 'r A THESIS Submitted to the Faculty of The Creighton University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of E n g l i s h OMAHA, 1937 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE F O R E W O R D ................................................. i I. AN INTRODUCTION TO ROBINSON .......................... 1 II. THE POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF THE TRISTRAM L E G E N D ..................................................... 13 III. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRISTAN STORY BY THOMAS ........................................ 19 IV. LATER VERSIONS OF TRISTRAM .......................... 24 V. ROBINSON'S INTERPRETATION OF TRISTRAM .............33 BIBLIOGRAPHY 44 i FOREWORD ■ The third great epic, Tristram, which was to complete the Arthurian trilogy, so majestically and movingly in terpreted the world-famous medieval romance that the out standing excellences of Robinson's verse, thus far ignored by the large reading public, forced themselves into recognition, and he, after thirty years' patient waiting and unflagging trust in his own genius, at last was greeted with universal applause. Although America in the interval had witnessed an exceptional efflorescence of good poetry, he was hailed, not only as the dean, but as the prince of American bards.* The writer, who considers this statement as valid, bases her thesis on the premise that Robinson did appeal to the modem reader. She aims, first, through a study of the poet in general, to show how he appealed to the public. Because Tristram is classed as a medieval character, she will consider the possible origin of the story. Since a number of authors of note have pre sented the character, Tristram, it will be necessary to consider how they interpreted this character. Then, it will be necessary to show whether Robinson contributed anything new to the interpre tation of Tristram. C H A P T E R I AN INTRODUCTION TO ROBINSON The task of writing the introduction to King Jasper, the volume containing the last efforts of Edwin Arlington Robinson, fell to his contemporary, Robert Frost. He states: Robinson has gone to his place in American literature and left his human place among us vacant. We mourn, but with the qualifications, that, after all, his life was a revel in felicities of language and not just to no purpose. None has deplored: "The inscrutable profusion of the Lord Who shaped as one of us a thing" So sad and at the same time, so happy in achievement. It is not for me to search his sadness to its source. He knew how to forbid encroachment.^ Most biographers touch upon Robinson's aloofness. The world knew his poetry, but few except his intimate friends knew much concerning the man, Robinson. One of his oldest friends, Laura E, Richards, the daughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and her self a writer, has since his death supplied some of this infor mation. She states that he came of good Puritan stock. The Robinsons were "Kent folk" and some of them came to this country / in search of liberty. Two Robinson brothers settled in Maine about 1760. His mother was a descendant of Thomas Dudley, some time Lieutenant Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One of E. Edwin Arlington Robinson, King Jasper, xv. 2 the Dudleys married a Bradstreet. Anne 3radstreet, the poetess, was an ancestor of the poet, 3 "E. A.” was the third son of the Robinson family. His parents could not decide upon the name, so a group of ladies at a summer hotel supplied the name by each writing a choice and placing it in a hat. A drawing followed, and the name, Edwin, contributed by a woman from Arlington, Massachusetts, was drawn. He was not fond of the name, Edwin Arlington, and seldom used it in full. His friends in childhood called him "Win". In later years, his friends simplified his title to "E. A.". He liked that best. 4 She mentions the bookish taste of the family. At five he was reading "The Raven", and at seven he was discovering the sound of Shakespeare. He and his father were continually reading Bryant’s Library of Poetry. At eleven he was writing verses ; a n d at sixteen, Laura Richards feels that he had decided that this was 5 his mission in life. His grammar school teacher, now Mrs. Charles Seabury of Boonton, Hew Jersey, says: He was a highly sensitive child, looking at the world objectively, for the most part, and quick to observe the humor in everything. But I had no more idea that he was an embryo poet than he had.® 3. Laura E. Richards, IS. A. R., 4 4. I b i d ., 5. 5. Ibid., 7. 6. Ibid., 8 3 Across the street from Robinson lived Augustus Jordan, a boyhood friend, -whose father was an old sea captain with many stories to tell. Jordan and his vessel were lost. Captain Craig 7 is probably Captain Jordan. His poem, "Pasa Thalassa Thalassa" (The sea is everywhere the sea) is an account of that passing: Cone — faded out of the story, the seafaring friend, I remember, Gone for a decade, they say: never a word or sign. Gone with his hard red face that only his laughter could wrinkle, ^ Down where men go to be still, by the old way of the sea. Blankenship, in speaking of Robinson's debt to older liter ature, says, "Hardy and Crabbe are his acknowledged masters, and he has a warm admiration for Zola."® Mrs. Richards states, how ever, that she has a letter written in 1929 in which the poet says: You are entirely wrong about my being steeped in Zola and Hardy when I was young. When I was young I read mostly Dickens, dime novels (which cost five cents), Elijah Kellogg, Harry Castlemon, Oliver Optic, Horatio Alger, Bulwer Lytton, Thackeray, and Bryant's Library of Poetry and Song. When I wrote that rather pinfeat'he'rTsh Zola sonnet, I had read only L'Assommoir, and I have read only one of his books since then.-^ "Isaac and Archibald" undoubtedly were childhood ac quaintances. The biographer does not identify them, but the 7. Ibid., 10. 8. Edwin Arlington Robinson, Collected Poems, 335. 9. Russell Blankenship, American Literature, 584. 10 Laura £. Richards, op. oit., 14 4 poet s a y s : Isaac and Archibald were two old men. I knew them, and I may have laughed at them A little; but I must have honored them ^ For they were old, and they were good to me. Robinson completed his high school course in 1888. A classmate wrote of him: If I were called upon to name the quality most clearly apparent in this lovable youth, I should not hesitate to say, patience! patience, and an unruffled good humor. The forbearance of strength and a high courage was his. I do not believe that such a nature could harbor unhappi n e s s ...... His reserve was fostered by no grudging re luctance to widen his circle of acquaintance, but rather by the need to preserve his freedom for the prodiguous task which, it seemed, he had already envisaged and ac cepted. Fullerton Waldo, a classmate at Harvard, mentions his 13 passion for seclusion. Lucius Beebe, too, notes reserve and restraint as one of his personal characteristics. He calls him, "The Dignified Faun" who devoted himself to art alone. He men- tions that he refused to read his poetry in public and never spoke concerning his works at clubs of literary meetings.^ His first book of poetry, The Children of the Night, ap peared in 1897. The poet was then living in New York, earning a living from numerous small jobs and writing poetry in his spare 11. E. A. Robinson, Collected Poems, 169. 12. Laura E. Richards, op. oit., 28. 13. Fullerton Waldo, "Some Memories of a Poet in the Making", The Outlook, CXIX, 531-34 (Nov. 30, 1923). 14. Lucius Beebe, "The Dignified Faun", The Outlook, CLV, 647-49, (August 27, 1930). 5 time. He had at this time left Harvard after two years of school- 1 5 ing, because of financial difficulties. Captain Craig, which appeared in 1897, attracted the attention of President Roosevelt. The President inquired about him and found that he was taking tickets in a subway. He secured a position for him in the Customs in New York. The position was one that provided a livelihood, but 16 did not tax the strength of the poet. President Roosevelt con tinued that interest in the poet. He called the attention of the reading public to his poetry in 1905. His success, however, did not come easily. Mrs. Richards mentions that the poet recalled once that he believed that his rejection slips must have been the 1 ft largest and most comprehensive in literary history. The early years brought heavy sorrow to his life. In 1896, his mother died of black diptheria. Fear of the disease was so intense that all but her sons failed her. The boys nursed her, and after her death, had to place her in the coffin. Years later the poem, "To a Dead Lady", was written in memory of her. 15. Charles Cestre, op. oit., 1-2. 16. Lloyd Morris, The Poetry of Edwin Ariington Robinson, 115. 17. Theodore Roosevelt, "Roosevelt Reviews the Children of the Night", The Outlook, LXXX, 913-14, (August, 1906). 18. Laura E. Richards, op. oit., 38-39. 6 Ho more with overflowing light Shall fill the eyes that now are faded, Nor shall another’s fringe with night Their woman-hidden world as they did.