Background of the Poem
“Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a dramatic lyric poem. It centers on a twentieth-century misfit man who dreams of living in the heroic past age of swords, knights, and horses. Charles Scribner’s Sons published it in 1910 as part of a collection under the name of Town Down the River.
It is the poem about a man, Miniver Cheevy, who is not happy with his present. He laments the time that he was born in. Instead of doing something to fix his present situation, he dreams about the past and all the glories it carried. Cheevy believes that he is born in a wrong age because the modern era does not hold any grace like the historical period. He calls modern art and literature dull by comparing it to the graceful past.
Some critics have suggested that the character of Miniver Cheevy is meant to be Robinson himself. Other scholars believe otherwise. They suggest that Miniver Cheevy is a critique of Robinson’s culture.
Miniver Cheevy and E. A. Robinson’s Personal life
When Robinson created the character of Miniver, he looked inward. From the very start of Robinson’s life in December 1869, his mother frowned on him because she wanted a girl. When a boy was born, the mother had no ready name for him. After six months—in the summer of 1870— he did receive an identity the time he was given a name.
In his life in the challenging world of the twentieth century, Robinson faced poverty like Miniver. He faced failure like Miniver. Additionally, like the character of this poem, Robinson also turned to alcohol.
Being a sensitive soul, he was affected way too much from the hustle-and-bustle of the modern age. In an age of industrial rise, emerging technology, and materialism, Robinson preferred writing poetry.
Literary Background
When “Miniver Cheevy” was published, it was the peak of modernism, a broad and complicated literary theory. It was the time when literature responded to the dramatic hype of industrialization and urbanization of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
At that time, literature emphasized the sense of loneliness that many people felt in a new modern world. Literature did it by breaking from traditional literary forms. Modernist writers made a new path and started writing without meter, rhyme, or a proper form.
Additionally, new forms were invented. Fragments and quotations were brought together. Poets at the time of “Miniver Cheevy” sought to cultivate the same innovation and excitement in the literature that they saw in the world around them.
On the contrary, Robinson’s “Miniver Cheevy” carries the traditional rhyming scheme known as ABAB. It shows Robinson’s dislike of modernism and its materialistic ideas.
Historical Background
‘Miniver Cheevy” was written in the early twentieth century. It was a transitional period in American life. The years just before the Great War, WWI (1914-1918), were surrounded by broad social and political changes. The old order of imperialism, formality, rigid class structure, heroism, and romanticism was dying away and a new order of society emerged.
Because of the mass immigration and industrialization, the United States became a substantially more diverse and populous place than it had been at its founding. It had become a substantially more urban place as well.
The graceful and legendary heroes of the past had been replaced by the ill-tempered urban political parties. Alongside this, there were populist rural political movements as well. Further, the country expanded from the Atlantic coastline to the Pacific. The frontier had been officially declared closed in 1890.
As these rapid transformations took place, a series of tension developed in the country. There occurred a clash between urban and rural populations. The clash was also between the educated upper class and wide swaths of uneducated or under-educated people. New England Protestants, who could trace their ancestors to the earliest pilgrims, came in a fight with the more recent Catholic and Jewish arrivals. There was also a tug of war between modernists and those with a traditional mindset.
“Miniver Cheevy” openly acknowledges this societal context. It is directly shipped throughout the poem. The character of Cheevy represents hatred for the modern world. This poem presents a perfect picture of modernism versus traditionalism.
Miniver Cheevy Summary
The poem introduces Miniver Cheevy, a man immediately linked with scorn and bitterness. He seems born like a hereditary disease. He is stricken by poverty. He is described as lean and slim because he does not have enough to eat. The speaker of the poem says that Cheevy has carried his contempt for years, and seasons after seasons.
Cheevy’s scorn is not only for the world around him. His scorn is aimed at himself as well. He regrets that he is born and this regret makes him cry. The speaker of the poem comments that Cheevy has reasons for these hateful feelings.
The speaker describes Cheevy as a miserable man but he does like one thing. Cheevy likes the past. His interest is not in the recent past, or in his own past, but in distant historical periods. The narrator says that Cheevy likes swords which refer to the European medieval period.
The speaker then describes Cheevy’s glorified image of the past. In Cheevy’s visions, the knights’ horses are well-trained show horses. He imagines these horses performing fancy steps as they carry their riders. The speaker says that Cheevy dances around as he imagines these ancient warriors in their protective coverings mounted on their horses.
According to the speaker, thinking about the past is a hard job for Cheevy. It exhausts him. Thinking about the past and its glories make Cheevy sigh. For Cheevy, such thoughts feel like a heavy mental burden.
The speaker gives some examples of the ancient eras that Cheevy considers the best time to live in. The jumbled order of these past references exposes that Cheevy is more interested in the famous stories of ancient times than the historical facts.
The speaker engages in wordplay for humorous effects. The speaker says that the fame that Cheevy misses is so ripe that people associated with it are fragrant. Cheevy thinks about the past people so clearly that they appear to him like full-bloomed, sweet-smelling flowers. Next, Cheevy laments that the idea of Romance is completely forgotten in the modern age. Cheevy is also concerned about Art that is impoverished and homeless in today’s world.
Cheevy idealizes the Historical age of the Medici. What attracts Cheevy is that they were so wealthy and powerful. The speaker of the poem explains that Cheevy had no firsthand knowledge of the Medici but it still did not stop him from idealizing them. Cheevy is enamored with his mental image of the Medici that he would have sinned to be one among them.
The speaker of the poem then exposes the contradictions of Miniver Cheevy. Cheevy does not like the ordinary fashion of modern times. He does not like the comfortable Khaki suit. At the same time, he idealizes the medieval armors that were not comfortable at all.
Miniver Cheevy has inconsistent nature. He likes to be rich and the fact that he is not rich bothers him. On the other hand, he looks down upon wealth. The speaker says that Cheevy himself is confused about his contradictory ideas that he uses to escape from the modern world. He does nothing but thinks all the time.
Being unable and unwilling to see a solution for his problems, Cheevy keeps on drinking. He avoids the personal responsibility of fixing his situation. At the end of the poem, Cheevy says that he was fated to be miserable.
Themes in Miniver Cheevy
Belatedness and Nostalgia
Throughout the poem, Miniver Cheevy feels nostalgic about the famous and glorified past. Cheevy loves the past because it was the time of warriors and heroism. Cheevy sighs that the sense of heroism is no more in existence in the modern world. Everything has now become robotic and human power is replaced by machinery power.
Cheevy also mourns for the best literature of the past. He laments that medieval forms and genres of art and literature are no longer created and available. Cheevy also loves the Medici whom he has never seen. He lives in the past more than he lives in the present.
The whole poem describes that he imagines the past life all the time. All his lamentations are the result of his sense of belatedness. Cheevy blames his unlucky timings of birth and existence.
On the surface, “Miniver Cheevy” is about mourning, crying, sighing, lamenting, and nostalgia of a character. In-depth, the poem represents how the modernists approach their past. Modernists feel that they are latecomers in history.
A modernist like Miniver Cheevy thinks that before he came, many best things were consumed by the ancestors. Such people have a sense of belatedness and nostalgia for what is gone. This poem shows that the modernists are nostalgic for the past.
Heroism in the past
In an ironic sense, the poem “Miniver Cheevy” is built on a contrast between the unheroic Miniver as he is, and his daydreams of a heroic past.
The past was full of adventure, romance, and art associated with heroic figures. There was the legendary Trojan War in ancient Greece, King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table in the Middle Ages. Additionally, there was the impressive brilliance and corruptness of the Medici in the Renaissance. As a matter of fact, the present is no more as heroic as the past was. Due to the advancements in the modern era, there are no more face-to-face wars. If there are any, they are fought in a technologic manner in which the machines carry more power than humans.
Adjustment with New Changes
Some scholars criticize Miniver Cheevy for not being able to adjust and integrate with the obvious changes in society. Nothing remains the same in this material world. With every passing moment, things are changing and the world is evolving. However, Cheevy cannot embrace this fact.
Cheevy’s extreme level of negation and hatred toward change is self-destructing. His extreme lamentation on his own birth in the modern era never makes him at ease. Because of the creation of such a depressed and unhappy character, Robinson, the poet of the poem, is called “America’s poet laureate of unhappiness.”
Inaction
Miniver Cheevy is a lazy drunkard man. He only knows how to complain. Other than lamenting, he does nothing to make his situation better. He is the representation of a modern man who fails in action and falls in grip of the modern absurd daydreaming.
Unsatisfied nature of humans
Miniver Cheevy is not happy with the times he lives in. He dislikes that art and literature of the present age. He also dislikes the comfortable khaki suit and adores the graceful medieval armor which was uncomfortable.
Cheevy also wants to be rich and he hates the fact that he is not. On the other hand, he hates gold and wealth. It shows that Cheevy has such an unsatisfied nature, no matter what he has and he has not. He is not satisfied with his present but his attitude shows that he would have problems with the past if he were born then.
It shows the nature of any human being. People always desire what they do not possess. They never pay attention to what they have in their hands. Such an ungrateful attitude makes one’s life worse. It makes one lament every time. Such a person never gets happy at any moment.
Escaping Reality
Miniver Cheevy seeks diversion and relaxation from the harsh realities of his present age. He keeps himself engaged in fantasies. He withdraws from the world of reality and challenges by dreaming about the glorious and famous past. He drinks away his problems. Cheevy is a do-nothing daydreamer.
Through the character of Miniver Cheevy, the poet is conveying the message that one must not waste time by complaining and being sad about the things that one has missed. Rather, one must be sadder for missing things in the present time. Cheevy dwells on the past so much that he misses the things around him.
Rationalization
Cheevy justifies his problems by saying that he was born to be miserable. He blames fate for his poor condition. He believes that not being wealthy and born in the age of chaos was not his fault. He considers it all meant to be. For this reason, he thinks there is nothing he can really do about it.
Miniver Cheevy Literary Analysis
“Miniver Cheevy” describes the lamentation of its character, Miniver Cheevy, about the modern world. Miniver is a young man who lives in the wrong era where modern thinking has replaced everything. It also presents the present world in comparison with the heroic and romantic historical era.
The poem deals with the concerns of the character, his serious ideas, and regret over his late birth. Miniver is a great admirer and lover of the past. He believes that it was the time of legendary warriors and heroism. He also laments over the fact that all the past glories are lost in the world around him.
Throughout the poem, Miniver tries to give reasons to justify his miserable situation and dissatisfaction in the modern world. He also tries to justify his immense love for the chivalry, literature, and romances of the past. Miniver blames the modern world for the change it has brought. His excessive intake of alcohol adds more to his suffering.
Title of “Miniver Cheevy”
The title of the poem “Miniver Cheevy” is itself very unfamiliar and unusual. However, it is appropriate for its character who dreams all the time and has nothing else to do. The title shows the inactiveness and the unachieving ability of Miniver Cheevy. It can also be interpreted as “minimum achiever.” In this way, the title is metaphorical. Cheevy wants to be born in the historical age when bravery and courage mattered in battlefields.
Historically, “Miniver” is the name of a fur that was either white or gray in color. It was a compulsory part of the formal dress of kings. Similarly, “Cheevy” is derived from a French word “cheval,” meaning horse. It is clearly related to the theme of the poem that Cheevy adores the past and all those people who lived in the past.
Important Words and their Meaning
Thebes
It is an allusion to the ancient Greek city that was made famous for its myths, legends, heroes, and villains. They include Cadmus, Oedipus, Antigone, and its Macedonian conquerors, King Philip II, and Alexander the Great.
Camelot
It is an allusion to the ancient English city of King Arthur and his Knights.
Priam
It is an allusion to the king of Troy during the Trojan War. This war was against an army of Greeks that was led by the awe-inspiring warrior, Achilles. Achilles and this war were the subjects of the Iliad by Homer.
Medici
The House of Medici was a powerful family that ruled Florence through much of the Renaissance and well into the eighteenth century. The Medici extended its power to Tuscany. Some members of this family turned into popes while others married into European royalty.
Khaki
It is a cotton or wool fabric of a dull brownish-yellow color. It is usually used to make military uniforms.
Iron Clothing
It means a suit of armor that is a historical type of personal body protective shield.
Setting and speaker
The setting of the poem is not clearly described. However, the character of Cheevy tells that he is living in a modern chaotic world. There is a busy life around him. The setting of this poem has nothing as graceful as the past.
The speaker of the poem is anonymous. He seems like a person who is close to Miniver Cheevy and understands his condition. Some critics suggest that the speaker of the poem is Robinson himself who has become the voice of humanity.
This poem is written in third-person narration.
Rhyming Scheme, Meter, and Structure
“Miniver Cheevy” has a rhyming scheme of ABAB. It means that every other line of the poem rhymes. It is written in iambic tetrameter, having four iambs per line. The structure of “Miniver Cheevy” is symmetrical. It contains eight stanzas and each stanza contains four lines (quatrains).
The first and third lines of each stanza have masculine end rhymes. Oppositely, the second and fourth lines of each stanza have feminine end rhymes. Masculine rhyme means when the final syllable of a line rhymes similar to the final syllable of another line. On the other hand, feminine rhyme means when the final two syllables of a line rhyme similar to the final two syllables of another line.
Other than this, the speaker starts the first line of each stanza with “Miniver” and the third line of each stanza with either “Miniver” or “he.” The speaker also lengthens the second line of each stanza and shortens the last line of each stanza. Such a structure enables him to express the inconsistent nature and never-ending miseries of Miniver.
Similarly, the speaker makes the openings of the second, third, and fourth stanzas parallel with the openings of the fifth, sixth, and seventh stanzas. The opening line of the eighth stanza is then made parallel with the first line of the first stanza.
Given below is an illustration of this pattern:
Stanza 1, Line 1: Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn
Stanza 8, Line 1: Miniver Cheevy, born too late
Here, the grammatical structure of both lines resembles. In each line, the proper noun is followed by a parenthetical expression. Also, these two are the only lines in the poem that start with the first and last name of the character.
Stanza 2, Line 1: Miniver loved the days of old
Stanza 3, Line 1: Miniver sighed for what was not
Stanza 4, Line 1: Miniver mourned the ripe renown
Stanza 5, Line 1: Miniver loved the Medici
Stanza 6, Line 1: Miniver cursed the commonplace
Stanza 7, Line 1: Miniver scorned the gold he sought
Here, Miniver loved, Miniver sighed, and Miniver mourned resembles with Miniver loved, Miniver cursed, and Miniver scorned.
“Miniver Cheevy” as a Satire
By describing Miniver Cheevy, a misfit daydreamer, Robinson satirizes all the Minivers of the present world who waste time by thinking about “good old days” and does nothing to live with ease in the present. Instead of creating their identity to make their names and time memorable, these Minivers sit and cry over nothing.
Tone of the Poem
The tone of “Miniver Cheevy” is pitying, sympathetic, understanding, and a little didactic as well. It seems as if a teacher is telling his students not to be over-imaginative about nearly impossible things. It is also a bit mocking.
Shifts
There is a shift in line 29 where Miniver Cheevy seems to be well-aware of his poor situation. However, he goes back to drinking to shut his eyes from the hard realities of the world.
Literary Devices used in Miniver Cheevy
Metaphor
Metaphor means to compare two different things having something in common. The first line of the poem is used as a metaphor for Robinson’s children. His mother wanted a girl. For this reason, he calls himself “the child of scorn.”
Apostrophe
It means to address someone or something that is either present or absent at the moment. In this poem, the speaker refers to art as “a vagrant” being chucked out on the streets.
Symbolism
It means to use symbols to represent other things. In this poem, “khaki suit” symbolizes working for modern culture. Similarly, “gold” represents working for living in the modern age to be successful and socially acceptable.
Allegory
It means to use large and complex ideas in an accessible way. In this poem, “The Medici” represents the medieval age that Cheevy idealizes.
Anaphora
It is the repetition of words or phrases at the start of a line. For example:
“Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.”
Enjambment
It means a thought or phrase that does not end at a line break but continues to the next line. For example:
“He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.”
Assonance
It is the repetition of identical vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound /e/ is repeated in “The missed the medieval grace” and “Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn.”
Consonance
it is the repetition of identical consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound /th/ is repeated in “Miniver thought, and thought, and thought.” Also, the sound /n/ is repeated in “He mourned romance now on the town.”
Personification
It means to give human qualities to nonhuman things. In this poem, art is personified as a person who wanders.
Allusion
It means an indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, literary, cultural, or political importance. For example:
“He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam’s neighbors”
Here, Miniver Cheevy gives clues of the past world that he adores.
Imagery
It means to use such words or ideas that the readers can perceive through five senses. In this poem, swords and horses are described as bright and prancing, respectively. It is visual imagery that makes the reader feel as if they can see with eyes.
Oxymoron
It is a figure of speech in which opposite terms appear. For example, “grew lean.”
Synecdoche
This device is used to make a part represent the whole or vice versa. For example, “khaki suit” represents a modern soldier. Also, “iron clothing” represents medieval knights.
