Inferential by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The speaker looks upon the body of a man he had honored least among men and once judged unessential. Seeing him in a coffin gives the man an unfamiliar dignity and makes the speaker recognize that there was more to him than he had perceived. The dead man’s presence inspires not only the customary reverence for the dead but also a humbling awareness that those considered behind and those considered ahead may not be so far apart.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1920 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Elegy, Sonnet · 136 words
First lines
ALTHOUGH I saw before me there the face
Of one whom I had honored among men
The least, and on regarding him again
Would not have had him in another place, / He fitted with an unfamiliar grace
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Inferential 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: Lyric Poetry, Elegy, Sonnet, Psychological Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 136 words
- Structure: 1 section, 11 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Inferential by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A concise first-person poetic meditation that emphasizes personal perception, emotional reconsideration, and reflective language rather than narrative plot.
- Elegy — The speaker confronts a deceased man's body in a coffin and reflects on death's power to alter judgment, making the poem an understated elegiac meditation.
- Sonnet — The work has fourteen lines and follows the structural and rhetorical movement of a sonnet, turning from the speaker's former contempt to a broader recognition of shared human limitation.
- Psychological Poetry — Its central action is inward: the speaker reassesses his past judgment, experiences awe before death, and recognizes his own implication in the dead man's perceived failures.
Tags
poetry · American literature · modernist poetry · lyric poetry · philosophical · introspective · psychological · melancholic · symbolic · reflective · literary · formal verse