Edward Arlington Robinson’s “Miniver Cheevy” written in iambic tetrameter quatrains was first published in The Town down the River in 1910. Edward Arlington Robinson deals with characters who are generally disillusioned with life’s turn of events. Miniver Cheevy always found a refuge in the nostalgia of the past. Miniver is hopelessly romantic. The poet opts for a common name to suggest the insignificance of the persona, and a funny one to point to his eccentricity. Miniver prefers romantic idealism to tarnished reality.
Miniver was a “child of scorn” His character seems to have been shaped on the contempt for others. Ironically, it was his wry temperament that invited the wrath of others. He grew lean, and became fragile as he constantly wrestled against the seasons: the diverse circumstances and changing climes. He detested the fact that he was even born. And he had genuine reasons for it. He loved the bygone era, and longed for the pastness of the past. He rather aspired for a Quixotic Yesterday that had valiant men engaged in sword-fight. He was incorrigibly obsessed with a knight in armour. Such thoughts of the medieval romance set him in seventh heaven.
He cherished the thought of the city of Thebes.…