L'Envoy by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The speaker repeatedly senses a phrase of transcendent music in thoughts, shadowed words, and voices that seem to thrill eternity. Unlike sentimental melodies or triumphant warlike music, it is a joyful strain of vast harmony beyond any mortal hand, instrument, or written form. Yet the speaker finally recognizes that one instrument can sustain it: after time and place have been overthrown, God’s touch will keep its single chord quivering.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1916 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Spiritual Poetry · 145 words
First lines
NOW in a thought, now in a shadowed word, / Now in a voice that thrills eternity, / Ever there comes an onward phrase to me
Of some transcendent music I have heard; / No piteous thing by soft hands dulcimered,
No trumpet crash of blood-sick victory, / But a glad strain of some vast harmony
That no brief mortal touch has ever stirred.
What this Textopian page supports
L'Envoy is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1916 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: 1916 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Spiritual Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry
- Length: 145 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for L'Envoy by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a brief, intensely personal meditation that expresses an inward perception of transcendent music rather than narrating events or developing characters.
- Sonnet — It is a fourteen-line poem structured in the traditional sonnet form, using a reflective turn near the close to resolve its central question.
- Spiritual Poetry — The poem concerns eternal harmony, the limits of mortal expression, and God's sustaining touch, giving it an explicitly religious and transcendent focus.
- Philosophical Poetry — It contemplates the relationship between temporal human experience and eternal reality, as well as the inadequacy of language and art to represent ultimate truth.
Tags
poetry · American literature · lyric verse · reflective · melancholic · introspective · philosophical · symbolism · mortality · isolation · disillusionment · human nature