The Dead Village by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The poem portrays a village consumed by death and desolation. Though people were once joyful there and children played, a change came that silenced its music and erased its life, love, children, and men. Only ghostly remnants remain beneath a dreamlike, forgotten light, as if God has frowned upon the place and shut it from His sight.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1910 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Dark Poetry · 140 words
First lines
HERE there is death. But even here, they say, / Here where the dull sun shines this afternoon
As desolate as ever the dead moon
Did glimmer on dead Sardis, men were gay; / And there were little children here to play,
With small soft hands that once did keep in tune
What this Textopian page supports
The Dead Village is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1910 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: 1910 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Dark Poetry, Elegy, Symbolist Poetry
- Length: 140 words
- Structure: 1 section, 12 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Dead Village by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, highly condensed poem driven by imagery, mood, sound, and emotional reflection rather than narrative plot.
- Gothic Poetry — Its desolate setting, ghosts, death, vanished inhabitants, dreamlike light, and sense of supernatural abandonment create a distinctly Gothic atmosphere.
- Dark Poetry — The poem centers on death, emptiness, lost joy, spiritual estrangement, and the complete extinction of village life.
- Elegy — It mourns a vanished community, especially its former children, music, love, and human vitality, treating the village as something irretrievably dead.
Tags
poetry · American literature · early twentieth century · rural setting · New England · abandoned community · village life · decay · mortality · memory · nostalgia · isolation