This study demonstrates that Edwin Arlington Robinson's keen interest in mystery is reflected in his poetry. However, he creates an unusual subgenre--the unresolved mystery. Definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary, religious treatises, and philosophical works, helped formulate a working definition of the word mystery. I then selected eight murder poems from The Collected Poems -- "The Tavern," "The Whip," "Stafford's Cabin," "Haunted House," "Avon's Harvest," "Cavender's House," "The Glory of the Nightingales," and "The March of the Cameron Men" and three poems from the Uncollected Poems and Prose of Edwin Arlington Robinson --"The Miracle," "For Calderon," and "The Night Before." In these murder mystery poems, Robinson fails to provide definite motives or conclusive evidence or reliable narrators--all necessary components to solve a mystery. These violations of mystery writing rules appear both in his long and short poems.In the short poems, without exception, Robinson provides no motives. Dead bodies indicate that crimes have been committed, but none of the perpetrators is brought to justice, and in some cases, not even identified. Hence, the presence of relevant, but skimpy details disallow solving the mystery with any degree of certainty. In addition, the long poems exclude clear motives, hard evidence or reliable narrators--all of which prevent the reader from reaching a sound conclusion. Other poems suggest the involvement of supernatural beings. Consistently, all his murder mystery poems conclude with the mystery either partially or completely unresolved. / Department of English
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/179946 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Razak, Ajmal M. |
| Contributors | Kirkham, E. Bruce |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 147 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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