Calvary by Edwin Arlington Robinson
In “Calvary,” the speaker recalls the Master’s exhausted journey to Calvary, where a cruel mob mocks, curses, and wounds him while he responds without vengeance. Though nineteen hundred years have passed, the speaker insists that humanity still bears the shame of that violence and has failed to repair the harm done in Christ’s name. The poem ends as a plea to the Lord for the courage of love and for an end to the continuing spiritual crucifixion of Christ.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1920 · Genre: Religious Poetry, Christian Devotional Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 155 words
First lines
FRIENDLESS and faint, with martyred steps and slow, / Faint for the flesh, but for the spirit free, / Stung by the mob that came to see the show, / The Master toiled along to Calvary; / We gibed him, as he went, with houndish glee,
Till his dimned eyes for us did overflow; / We cursed his vengeless hands thrice wretchedly, -
And this was nineteen hundred years ago.
But after nineteen hundred years the shame
What this Textopian page supports
Calvary is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1920 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1920 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Religious Poetry, Christian Devotional Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 155 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Calvary by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Religious Poetry — The poem directly depicts Christ's journey to Calvary and reflects on the continuing spiritual and moral meaning of the Crucifixion.
- Christian Devotional Poetry — It addresses the Lord in prayerful lament and urges repentance, faith, love, and moral courage.
- Lyric Poetry — This is a short, emotionally concentrated poem expressing a speaker's remorse, anguish, and appeal to God.
- Sonnet — The work is a fourteen-line poem shaped as a Petrarchan-style sonnet, with an octave describing Calvary and a sestet applying its meaning to the present.
Tags
poetry · narrative poem · dramatic monologue · modernist literature · American literature · religious themes · Christian symbolism · biblical allusion · faith · doubt · suffering · redemption