Captain Craig

· Freshwater Seas · Narrated by Robert Bethune
Audiobook
3 hr 21 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

"In 1921, Edwin Arlington Robinson was only 52 and many of the pieces in his Collected Poems were written long before that. Yet he shows gifted understanding of old age, the passage of time, the slow decline that everyone must suffer, and the final cease and release of death. Isaac, in Isaac and Archibald, puts it very well to the poet's twelve-year-old alter ego:



""But even unto you, and your boy's faith,
Your freedom, and your untried confidence,
A time will come to find out what it means
To know that you are losing what was yours,
To know that you are being left behind;
And then the long contempt of innocence
God bless you, boy I don't think the worse of it
Because an old man chatters in the shade
Will all be like a story you have read
In childhood and remembered for the pictures.""

The title poem of the book, ""Captain Craig,"" is a series of monologues by a cranky, iconoclastic, perceptive and sometimes brilliant old eccentric, now in his final days, as he converses and entertains a set of younger men who befriend him. The old man is fascinating as he intertwines his themes of life and joy with his knowledge of his own approaching end.

The other poems in the book are short studies in love, life and death, often from surprising points of view. Throughout the book, his portraits of men and women come vividly to life; the insights into personality and character he found almost a century ago ring just as true today. His instinct for human nature, his understanding of the great issues that shape life and fate, and his ability to find deep meaning in the commonplace make his work as intriguing today as it was in his own day - a day in which he won no less than three Pulitzer Prizes.

Enjoy!
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"In 1921, Edwin Arlington Robinson was only 52 and many of the pieces in his Collected Poems were written long before that. Yet he shows gifted understanding of old age, the passage of time, the slow decline that everyone must suffer, and the final cease and release of death. Isaac, in Isaac and ...

About the author

Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 - April 6, 1935) was a poet. He was born in Head Tide, Maine. Robinson attended Harvard University from 1891 to 1893. Robinson published two volumes of poetry. To make ends meet, Robinson worked as a checker of shale used to build the New York subway system. Theodore Roosevelt later helped Robinson get a job as a clerk in the New York Customs House, a position he held until 1910. Robinson is a three-time winner of the Pulizer Prize: In 1921 for Collected Poems; in 1924 for The Man Who Died Twice, and in 1927 for Tristram. Robinson died of cancer on April 6, 1935 in the New York Hospital (now New York Cornell Hospital) in New York City.
Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 - April 6, 1935) was a poet. He was born in Head Tide, Maine. Robinson attended Harvard University from 1891 to 1893. Robinson published two volumes of poetry. To make ends meet, Robinson worked as a checker of shale used to build the New York subway sy...

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