Power Quote: M.L. Rosenthal
Behind much of [Edward Arlington] Robinson’s work, in both its more successful and its less successful aspects, lies a deeply American obsession with the theme of failure: failure of a career, failure of a social class or a society, failure of a needed meaning to sustain itself–and, finally, the inevitable failure of life to resist death’s encroachment. Remembering Eliot’s motifs of sexual and spiritual failure and Pound’s savage complaints at a culture’s failure to realize itself, we see how much those poets have in common with Robinson after all. ‘When we think of America,’ said D.H. Lawrence in his introduction to Edward Dahlberg’s novel Bottom Dogs, ‘and of her huge success, we never realize how many failures have gone, and still go to build up that success.’
– “Rival Idioms: The Great Generation” (being Chapter Five of The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction)
**BONUS**
Read Robinson’s “Miniver Cheevy”
Read Robinson’s “Richard Corey”
Read Lawrence’s “Last Lesson of the Afternoon”
Enough failure for one day? Ready for earthy pagan Modernist resurrection sex?
Read Lawrence’s “New Heaven and Earth”
![Daily affirmation.](http://www.erg.be/blogs/huberlant/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/1Vince_frost2.jpg)
Daily affirmation.
Tags: Bob Seeger, D.H. Lawrence, E.A. Robinson, M.L. Rosenthal, The Modern Poets
failure is the new success
failure is the new success
And, apparently, the old success, since Rosenthal was writing in the 50s/60s about poetry mostly from the early 1900s.
And, apparently, the old success, since Rosenthal was writing in the 50s/60s about poetry mostly from the early 1900s.
i love robinson. i have his collected works right beside me on the book shelf. well worth pulling out and reading every now and then. cheever and corey are his famous poems. they are good, but there is better. dive into his stuff. it gets a lot better.
i love robinson. i have his collected works right beside me on the book shelf. well worth pulling out and reading every now and then. cheever and corey are his famous poems. they are good, but there is better. dive into his stuff. it gets a lot better.