Poetic Imagery Pictures of Broken

Poetic Imagery

Pictures of Broken Men: Miniver Cheevy, J. Alfred Prufrock, and Silas the Hired Man

rightly or wrongly, it can be used to define a person. Status determines how society perceives success and how one can become successful. While it may refer to the class to which one belongs, level of education, profession, one's social circle, age, and reputation can also help to establish one's status in society. Edwin Arlington Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy," T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and Robert Frost's "The Death of the Hired Man" take as their subjects men of different statuses. While Prufrock does not share the lowly circumstances of Cheevy and the absolute destitution of Silas, all three are broken men because of their status.

Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy" details the life and perspective of a man who wishes he had been born during medieval times. The very first line of the poem defines Miniver Cheevy as a person who is held in disdain and ridiculed: "Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn" (1. 1). The rest of the stanza gives the picture of a failure in life who despises himself: "Grew lean while he assailed the seasons; He wept that he was ever born, and he had reasons" (ll. 2-4). Robinson's poetic language describes someone who is quite poor, and due to his financial situation, every year he grows thinner and more sickly: "Grew lean while he assailed the seasons" (l. 2). His poor health can also be attributed to his alcoholism and fatalism. He accepts his lot in life as someone who will never be successful, and so he drinks all day and fantasizes about what could have been: "Miniver coughed,/and called it fate,/and kept on drinking" (ll. 31-2). The reason Cheevy accepts his fate and status in life is because he believes he was "born too late" (l. 29). Throughout the poem, Robinson describes him as a man who obsesses about the past through allusions to Ancient Greece ("Thebes…/and Priam's neighbors," ll.11-12), Camelot (l. 10), and medieval times (ll. 23). He imagines himself as a "warrior bold" (l. 7) or a rich Medici who could have lived excessively: "Miniver loved the Medici,/Albeit he had never seen one; / He would have sinned incessantly/Could he have been one" (ll. 17-20). He romanticizes bygone times and assumes that his life would have been more exciting and rewarding.

Robinson uses great irony and humor to paint the portrait of Miniver Cheevy, gently mocking the subject. The very name of the man is ironic. While "Miniver" sounds old fashioned, "Cheevy" sounds like "achieve." Cheevy has achieved absolutely nothing in his life, and this is because he has not attempted to make something of himself. In one of the more revealing stanzas, Robinson shows the reader why Cheevy has failed to find success: "Miniver scorned the gold he sought,/but sore annoyed was he without it;/Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,/and thought about it" (ll. 25-8). So, Cheevy wishes for money, assuming he cannot have it ("scorned the gold he sought"), but he does absolutely nothing to change his situation. Robinson emphasizes how ridiculous Cheevy's point-of-view is through repetition: "…thought, and thought, and thought,/and thought about it." The more Cheevy just thinks about what his life could have been, the sillier -- and sadder -- his situation becomes. Robinson also personifies Romance and Art to draw parallels with Cheevy: "He mourned Romance, now on the town,/and Art, a vagrant" (ll. 15-16). Romance is an ideal and way of life depicted in medieval literature, while art flourishes and evolves during the Renaissance. However, Cheevy sees Romance as wandering about town, homeless. Likewise, Art is a "vagrant," someone seen as a nuisance who has no home and begs for money. Both Art and Romance have lost their high standing; as Cheevy sees it, they are no longer respected as they should be. Similarly, Cheevy is also a beggar whom people despise, and he feels he should be more respected -- even though, as Robinson makes clear, he has done nothing to gain that respect. Cheevy might be where he is in life because of his lowly birth, but he has done nothing to improve himself.

While he may be thinking to himself or speaking to someone, Prufrock in T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock" displays insecurities and feelings of failure, just as Miniver Cheevy does. The speaker of the poem, he considers that there will be "…time yet for a hundred indecisions,/and for a hundred visions and revisions" (ll. 32-3). This is a man who is unsure of himself and the choices he has made. He is concerned about how the people will view him: "…indeed there will be time/to wonder, 'Do I dare? and, 'Do I dare?'/Time to turn back and descend the stair…/(They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')" (ll. 37-41). As someone who second guesses himself, he is thinking of not going forward in life ("Time to turn back and descend the stair," l. 39). He is also concerned with aging and that others will see that his balding is a sign of growing older (l. 41). Prufrock defines himself as lower middle class and learned. His "necktie" is "rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin" (l. 43), and he compares himself to several literary figures. Unlike Miniver Cheevy, it appears that Prufrock has some income, and he has tried to be successful, even if he has failed by his own estimation: "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker" (l. 84).