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Miniver Cheevy (paraphrase + explication)


            
             "Miniver Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a poem about a man who has a miserable life and his longing for one that would give him more satisfaction. What Miniver longs for more than any thing is the admiration and respect of the public. He wishes for a time that has already passed where he could attain love of the public by becoming a great knight or a hero. This poem is a struggle between Miniver's wanting of a better life, and his acceptance of his fate as a miserable man.
             "Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn" (Miniver Cheevy, born into hatred). This first line already sets the tone for the poem being that scorn implies disparagement, loathing, and melancholy. "Grew lean while he assailed the seasons"(He got thin as the years went by). The unsatisfied feeling that Miniver has for his life is not short lived. It is a constant problem implied by seasons being plural. "He wept that he was ever born, And he had reasons" (He wished he had never been born, and rightfully so). showing regret for the lifestyle that he was born into.
             The second stanza shows how Miniver feels that if he were born earlier that he could have had a chance at glory. "Miniver loved the days of old, When swords were bright and steed were prancing"(He loved the glory days of the knights fighting each other). In earlier times a knight was a person held with great esteem. Miniver could have been one of those knights, giving his life a whole knew meaning. "The vision of a warrior bold would send him dancing" (Thinking about those times made him happy enough to dance).
             In the third and fifth stanza, Miniver is daydreaming about how life was for those heroes years ago." Miniver sighed for what was not, And dreamed, and rested from his labors"(Miniver relaxed as he day dreamed about what could have been) "He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot, And Priam's Neighbors."(He dreamed of times of great knights) "Miniver loved the Medici, Albeit he had never seen one.


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