Lost Anchors by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The poem portrays an ocean-browned sailor living far inland and recounting the legend of an ancient, harbor-drowned vessel. Divers exploring its dark hull recover anchors long believed lost, and the sailor turns this discovery into an elaborate analogy for his own past misfortunes, enlarging the story during his idle time. The speaker ends by condemning the sailor’s life as so futile or unfortunate that his mother should have had no sons.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1916 · Genre: Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Sonnet · 132 words
First lines
LIKE a dry fish flung inland far from shore, / There lived a sailor, warped and ocean-browned, / Who told of an old vessel, harbor-drowned
And out of mind a century before, / Where divers, on descending to explore
A legend that had lived its way around
The world of ships, in the dark hulk had found
What this Textopian page supports
Lost Anchors 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: Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Sonnet, Psychological Poetry, Symbolist Poetry
- Length: 132 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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- Work identity for Lost Anchors by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is a compact, highly figurative verse composition organized through rhyme, meter, imagery, and compressed language.
- Narrative Poetry — It recounts a sailor's story of a long-sunken ship, recovered anchors, and the personal history metaphorically attached to that discovery.
- Sonnet — The poem has fourteen lines and follows a tightly structured rhyming form characteristic of the sonnet tradition, with a concluding interpretive turn.
- Psychological Poetry — The lost anchors operate as an analogy for the sailor's damaged inner life, alienation, regret, and troubled personal past.
Tags
poetry · modernist literature · American literature · lyric poems · melancholy · disillusionment · isolation · mortality · psychological insight · existential reflection · social alienation · character studies