The Clerks by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The speaker returns to find familiar men still standing where they once stood, much as they had in youth, when they imagined brighter days and were admired by women. Though age has given them an antiquated manner and a worn, brotherly resemblance, they remain as good and human as before. Addressing those who seek sublimity or take pride in lineage, the speaker declares that poets and kings alike are merely clerks of Time, endlessly measuring out the same dull dissatisfaction and the same sorrowful length of passing years.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1897 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Philosophical Poetry · 152 words
First lines
I DID not think that I should find them there
When I came back again; but there they stood, / As in the days they dreamed of when young blood
Was in their cheeks and women called them fair.
Be sure, they met me with an ancient air, -
What this Textopian page supports
The Clerks is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1897 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: 1897 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Sonnet, Philosophical Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Social Realist Poetry
- Length: 152 words
- Structure: 1 section, 9 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Clerks by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — A concise, highly personal and reflective poem expressing emotion and philosophical insight through concentrated imagery, sound, and formal verse.
- Sonnet — The work is a fourteen-line poem organized in the manner of a Petrarchan sonnet, with an octave describing the clerks and a sestet broadening into meditation.
- Philosophical Poetry — It reflects on time, mortality, ambition, social status, and the ultimately repetitive labor of human life.
- Meditative Poetry — The speaker moves from an observed encounter with aging clerks to a contemplative conclusion about human discontent and passing years.
Tags
poetry · American literature · narrative poem · dramatic monologue · small-town life · New England · clerical work · office workers · social observation · disillusionment · isolation · routine