Two Gardens in Linndale
“Two Gardens in Linndale” follows the brothers Oakes and Oliver, who settle in Linndale, where their fathers died, and divide a fenced plot so that each may become a gardener. Oakes is hopeful, confident that chemistry can overcome poor soil and determined to raise artichokes; Oliver is gentler and more doubtful, recalling their dead father’s warning that the ground will not support them. Though their temperaments differ, they avoid quarrelling, plant their gardens together, and imagine future harvests and songs. For years they repeatedly plant and wait, with Oakes insisting that one more season will bring success. Their efforts remain unfulfilled, but they live innocently and peacefully, preserving the boundary between their gardens. Then a Stranger, also called a Gardener, comes among them. After his brief visit, the entire land belongs to Oliver, and Oakes is dead. Oliver becomes the solitary keeper of both gardens. He sows, reaps, and listens for the songs that Oakes had envisioned but that remain unknown. At dawn, birds in his trees provide a chorus of light, while Oliver, unable to sing without Oakes’s voice, finds consolation in worship, patience, and rejoicing. He sees himself as the heir of age and pain, spared the lack of choice that befell his brother. At evening Oliver sits beside Oakes’s grave, smoking and wondering what future people might inherit two gardens in Linndale. He often sees Oakes’s ghost in a land of asphodels and artichokes, restlessly uprooting soft, shadowy flowers.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1920 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Pastoral Poetry · 887 words
First lines
TWO brothers, Oakes and Oliver, / Two gentle men as ever were, / Would roam no longer, but abide
In Linndale, where their fathers died, / And each would be a gardener.
What this Textopian page supports
Two Gardens in Linndale is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1920 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: 1920 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Philosophical Poetry, Elegy
- Length: 887 words
- Structure: 1 section, 58 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Two Gardens in Linndale by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
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Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete story in verse, following the brothers Oakes and Oliver from their gardening plans through Oakes's death and Oliver's solitary old age.
- Lyric Poetry — Despite its narrative structure, the poem emphasizes reflective mood, musical language, recurring imagery, and emotional meditation on hope, loss, patience, and mortality.
- Pastoral Poetry — Gardens, cultivation, seasonal cycles, birdsong, rural labor, and an apparently peaceful natural setting provide the poem's central imagery and pastoral frame.
- Philosophical Poetry — The brothers' dialogue contrasts faith in science, skepticism, fate, human agency, suffering, and the limits of knowledge, making abstract ideas integral to the poem.
Tags
poetry · lyric verse · American literature · modernist poetry · New England · rural setting · nature imagery · symbolism · melancholy · introspection · memory · loss