18 pages • 36 minutes read
Eros Turannos
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Wives in the Sere” by Thomas Hardy (1895)
Edwin Arlington Robinson acknowledged his admiration for and debt to the poetry of Thomas Hardy, particularly the character studies that came to be known as the Wessex Poems (named for the fictitious rural area Hardy brought to life). In this poem, Hardy describes a woman who in middle age still inspires the speaker with her beauty. Like Robinson, Hardy explores the relationship between love and time.
“Richard Cory” Edwin Arlington Robinson (1897)
Frequently compared to “Eros Turannos,” this poem explores the emotional emptiness of another Tilbury Town resident. Richard Cory is a man who seems successful and content until one night, alone and desperate, he shoots himself in the head. Cory’s suicide has been suggested as one possible end to the woman in this poem.
“George Gray” by Edgar Lee Masters (1915)
This poem is from Spoon River Anthology, a collection often compared to Robinson’s Tilbury Town poems. Masters recreates the emotional lives of the residents of a small Illinois river town. Like Robinson, Masters investigates the complexity of seemingly ordinary lives. Here, George Gray looks back on his life, ruing all the opportunities he resisted.
Further Literary Resources
“Allusion and Symbol in Robinson’s ‘Eros Turannos’” by C. Hines Edwards, Jr. (1984)
Aligning Robinson’s poem to the work of playwright Eugene O’Neill, the article examines Robinson’s use of Greek tragedy as a model for the poem. The article also traces the poem’s use of Freudian theories of frustrated passion as a way to understand the woman’s despair.
“Robinson, Hardy, and a Literary Source for ‘Eros Turannos’” by Jeffrey L. Spear (1979)
The article reveals Hardy’s influence on Robinson’s Tilbury Town poems. From Hardy, Robinson drew his portrayals of tragedy in working class lives. In addition, the article shows how Robinson was influenced by Hardy’s use of sexual tension and emotional sterility in developing characters.
“Poem of the Week: ‘Eros Turannos’” by Carol Rumens (2010)
This article, part of an ongoing series published by The Guardian newspaper, analyzes the tension between Robinson’s Romantic and Modernist inclinations. His poems position his characters at moments of often bleak insight. The article also examines the multiple perspectives in the poem as a Modernist (Cubist) experiment.
Listen to the Poem
Robinson had perhaps no greater admirer than Robert Pinsky (1940-), the respected and honored three-term US Poet Laureate). Pinsky’s reading of “Eros Turannos” on YouTube articulates the careful music of Robinson’s lines.
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By Edwin Arlington Robinson
