Two Sonnets by Edwin Arlington Robinson
The first sonnet questions a person whose fearful faith seeks God through the names of the dead and expects to recognize lost friends after death. The speaker rejects this backward-looking belief, wondering how such a view can understand God’s love or the passage into the Unseen. The second sonnet declares that souls must become strong enough to enter the destructive and redeeming core of existence, shedding their frightened, animal-like identities. Only then can they reach a state in which atoms and ages are united, perceive the divine abundance wasted in sinful distress, and taste the endless prophetic power of Thought.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1896 · Genre: Poetry, Sonnet, Philosophical Poetry · 250 words
First lines
JUST as I wonder at the twofold screen
Of twisted innocence that you would plait
For eyes that uncourageously await
The coming of a kingdom that has been, / So do I wonder what God's love can mean
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Two Sonnets is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1896 CE.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1896 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Sonnet, Philosophical Poetry, Religious Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry
- Length: 250 words
- Structure: 1 section, 23 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Difficult (College Level)
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Genres
- Poetry — The work consists of two highly structured lyric poems, using concentrated imagery, elevated diction, rhyme, and philosophical meditation rather than narrative plot.
- Sonnet — Each section is a fourteen-line poem shaped as a sonnet, with argument-driven development, formal rhyme, and a reflective concluding turn.
- Philosophical Poetry — The poems examine faith, death, identity, consciousness, divine purpose, time, matter, and the possibility of transcendence.
- Religious Poetry — God, the afterlife, sin, resurrection-like hopes, divine beneficence, and spiritual redemption are central subjects, though treated skeptically and unconventionally.
Tags
poetry · sonnets · lyric poetry · American literature · early twentieth century · formal verse · rhyme · meter · introspection · melancholy · mortality · isolation