Many are Called by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The poem presents Lord Apollo as an immortal and supreme power, secluded within a domain made unreachable by his own magic. Countless people try through sacred and profane song, joy, anguish, and invocation to draw him out, but all remain outside his walls. Only at rare and unknowable moments, by Apollo’s own unreadable will, does a searching light break through the darkness and touch the patient dead with gold.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1916 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Symbolist Poetry · 133 words
First lines
THE LORD APOLLO, who has never died, / Still holds alone his immemorial reign, / Supreme in an impregnable domain
That with his magic he has fortified; / And though melodious multitudes have tried
In ecstasy, in anguish, and in vain, / With invocation sacred and profane
To lure him, even the loudest are outside.
What this Textopian page supports
Many are Called 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, Symbolist Poetry, Mythological Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
- Length: 133 words
- Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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- Work identity for Many are Called by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a compact, highly musical poetic meditation expressed through elevated diction, imagery, rhythm, and a concentrated emotional-intellectual argument.
- Sonnet — It is a fourteen-line poem organized in a Petrarchan-style octave and sestet, with a rhetorical turn after the eighth line.
- Symbolist Poetry — Apollo, his inaccessible domain, the questing light, and the patience of the dead function as suggestive symbols rather than literal narrative elements.
- Mythological Poetry — The poem centers on Lord Apollo, the classical Greek god associated with poetry, music, prophecy, and artistic inspiration.
Tags
poetry · American literature · modernism · dramatic monologue · narrative verse · psychological insight · loneliness · alienation · tragedy · disillusionment · mortality · love