Cassandra by Edwin Arlington Robinson
In “Cassandra,” an unnamed speaker hears a prophetic voice condemn a crowd for worshipping the Dollar as its only guiding word and fear. The voice accuses them of building altars to money while remaining blind to the past, the future, and the warnings of reason. It mocks their confidence in youth, growth, prosperity, and immunity from danger, asking what in history or the universe could justify their belief that they alone will escape catastrophe. The speaker says that the crowd values a trinity of Dollar, Dove, and Eagle above itself: these symbols pay, flatter, and seem new, even though the Eagle feeds upon the people’s own flesh and blood. Though they possess power, they lack sight and refuse the wisdom offered by the ages. The voice asks whether they expect forever to trample old truths and to keep what they have at the cost of all that they are. The crowd moves on laughing; almost no one listens or understands.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1902 · Genre: Political Poetry, Satirical Poetry, Social Criticism · 423 words
First lines
I HEARD one who said: "Verily, / What word have I for children here?
Your Dollar is your only Word, / The wrath of it your only fear.
What this Textopian page supports
Cassandra is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1902 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: 1902 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Political Poetry, Satirical Poetry, Social Criticism, Prophetic Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 423 words
- Structure: 1 section, 34 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for Cassandra by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Political Poetry — The poem directly condemns national complacency, materialism, militaristic symbolism, and the political power embodied by the American Dollar, Dove, and Eagle.
- Satirical Poetry — Its prophetic speaker uses bitter irony to expose a society that worships money, dismisses reason, and mistakes temporary prosperity for permanent security.
- Social Criticism — The work attacks collective blindness, consumerist values, historical ignorance, and the public refusal to confront moral and national danger.
- Prophetic Poetry — The title invokes Cassandra, the doomed seer of Greek myth, while the poem delivers an ignored warning about future catastrophe and moral reckoning.
Tags
poetry · narrative poem · dramatic monologue · classical mythology · Greek mythology · Trojan War · prophecy · fate · tragedy · doomed heroine · isolation · unbelief