“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.