# Miniver Cheevy

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{{Short description|1910 poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Quote box
| title = Miniver Cheevy
| fontsize = 100%
| quote = <poem>Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,   
  Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;  
He wept that he was ever born,
  And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
  When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
  Would set him dancing.

Miniver sighed for what was not,
  And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of [Thebes](/source/Thebes%2C_Greece) and [Camelot](/source/Camelot),
  And [Priam](/source/Priam)'s neighbors.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown
  That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned [Romance](/source/Romanticism), now on the town,
  And [Art](/source/Art_for_art%2527s_sake), a vagrant.

Miniver loved the [Medici](/source/Medici),
  Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
  Could he have been one.

Miniver cursed the commonplace
  And eyed a khaki suit with loathing; 
He missed the medieval grace
  Of [iron clothing](/source/List_of_medieval_armour_components).

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
  But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
  And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
  Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
  And kept on drinking.
</poem>
}}
"'''Miniver Cheevy'''" is a [narrative poem](/source/narrative_poem) written by [Edwin Arlington Robinson](/source/Edwin_Arlington_Robinson), published in ''The Town down the River'' in 1910.<ref>'Miniver Cheevy,' in "The Oxford Companion to American Literature," edited by James D. Hart, 4th edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).</ref> The poem (written in quatrains of [iambic tetrameter](/source/iambic_tetrameter) for three lines, followed by a catalectic line of only three iambs), relates the story of a hopeless romantic who spends his days thinking about what might have been if only he had been born in a nobler and more romantic era.

Some scholars suggest that the character of Miniver is meant to be Robinson's self-aware skewering of his own sense of being an anachronism or throwback, but others add that Miniver represents a critique of the general culture of Robinson's time.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/robinson/miniver.htm | title=Modern American Poetry }}</ref> Regardless, the character portrait is similar to Robinson's [Richard Cory](/source/Richard_Cory_(poem)), a deeply discontented individual unable to fit in with society and bent on self-destruction.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=215 | title=Miniver Cheevy }}</ref> Robinson's preoccupation with such characters is one of the reasons he was called "America's poet laureate of unhappiness."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=174244| title = Miniver Cheevy by Edwin Arlington Robinson {{!}} Poetry Foundation| date = June 2022}}</ref>

==References in popular culture==
* In [Woody Allen](/source/Woody_Allen)'s 2011 film ''[Midnight in Paris](/source/Midnight_in_Paris)'', the lead character Gil is compared to Miniver Cheevy by a condescending friend of his fiancée.
* In [Joseph Heller](/source/Joseph_Heller)'s ''[Catch-22](/source/Catch-22)'', [Major Major Major Major](/source/Major_Major_Major_Major) is also compared with Miniver Cheevy because of his late birth.
* [Helene Hanff](/source/Helene_Hanff) compared herself to Miniver Cheevy, in her 1970 book ''[84, Charing Cross Road](/source/84%2C_Charing_Cross_Road)''.

==External links==
{{Wikisource|The town down the river; a book of poems/Miniver Cheevy|Miniver Cheevy}}
*[http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/robinson/miniver.htm Critiques of this poem]
* {{librivox book | title=Miniver Cheevy| author=Robinson}} (multiple versions)

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

Category:American poems
Category:Works by Edwin Arlington Robinson

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Miniver Cheevy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniver_Cheevy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniver_Cheevy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.