Three Quatrains by Edwin Arlington Robinson
“Three Quatrains” reflects on the enduring lure and futility of fame, glory, pleasure, and achievement. As Fame’s commanding music continues, poets will mock it with grand language and worn men will struggle for kingship, while Glory remains tied to dust. The poem urges a toast to unrealized splendor rather than grief over past revels, since the wines of Lucullus and Nero’s music have vanished. It concludes that no one can possess everything or command fate: whatever people are or create, Time eventually reveals decay within every laurel of success.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1897 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Meditative Poetry · 122 words
First lines
AS long as Fame's imperious music rings
Will poets mock it with crowned words august; / And haggard men will clamber to be kings
As long as Glory weighs itself in dust.
II
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Three Quatrains 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, Philosophical Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Memento Mori Poetry, Classical Allusive Poetry
- Length: 122 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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Similar titles
- Two Quatrains by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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- Sonnet by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work consists of three brief, highly compressed quatrains that express reflective ideas through elevated musical language rather than narrative action.
- Philosophical Poetry — It meditates on fame, glory, ambition, fate, fulfillment, and the inevitable erosion of human achievement by time.
- Meditative Poetry — Each section contemplates a broad human condition, especially the vanity and transience of worldly aspiration.
- Memento Mori Poetry — The poem stresses mortality and impermanence, culminating in the image of Time finding 'a withered leaf in every laurel.'
Tags
poetry · lyric poetry · quatrains · American literature · modern poetry · formal verse · rhyme · meter · meditation · mortality · isolation · disillusionment