Miniver Cheevy

"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1897)

Aside from “Miniver Cheevy,” “Richard Cory” is Robinson’s most famous and enduring poem. In many ways, Richard Cory is the antithesis of Miniver Cheevy. He’s a stylish rich man envied and idolized by the less fortunate people in town, but his outward appearance is deceiving. The poem ends with a shock to the townspeople: “Richard Cory, one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head.” Miniver may not have enough money and Richard too much, but both characters suffer self-destructive fates all the same.

"George Gray" by Edgar Lee Masters (1916)

Like E.A. Robinson, Edgar Lee Masters was known for his narrative portrait poems. Spoon River Anthology was his crowning achievement, featuring first person narratives from dead people buried in an Illinois graveyard. “George Gray” tells the story of a man who has many regrets looking back at his life, which was spent similarly to Miniver’s. George Gray was too afraid to pursue love and too cowardly for ambition, but in death he realizes that life’s meaning comes from having enough bravery to risk the unknown. He proclaims that “life without meaning is torture”—a fact Miniver would agree with—and ends with a final stark image that describes Miniver in a nutshell: “A boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.