Educational Video on Maine Poet, Ewin Arlington Robinson, Available

Free of Charge to Teachers

Dana Gioia, former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, produced video as part of his series on The Art of Poetry 

The Maine Arts Commission is pleased to announce that nationally renowned poet, and former NEA Chairman, Dana Gioia has focused his latest video on Maine poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson. The Strange, Dark Life of Edwin Arlington Robinson discusses Robinson’s troubled life and brilliant poetry.

Born in Head Tide (Alna), Maine in 1869, Robinson was raised in Gardiner, Maine. An eventual three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and a nominee for the Nobel Prize, Robinson, while eventually successful in literature, was often personally unfulfilling and difficult. 

Gioia, who, with his son Mike, a Los Angeles-based producer/director and founder of Blank Verse Films, have produced a series of video biographies about great American poets, as well as The Art of Poetry, which are available for viewing on Gioia’s YouTube channel.

A lifetime admirer of Robinson, Gioia says, “Robinson is the pivotal figure in American poetry between 19^th century American romanticism and 20^th century American modernism.” In the video, Gioia explains that Robinson might have remained an obscure, impoverished poet, if not for the unlikely support of President Theodore Roosevelt.

“Having recently announced Maine’s new poet laureate, Julia Bouwsma, it’s fitting to remind people that Maine has been home to countless nationally and internationally known artists, poets, and writers through the ages and continues to foster an artistic culture that is renowned across the country,” said David Greenham, Executive Director of the Maine Arts Commission.

 The Maine Arts Commission is eager to share this video, which spotlights a great Maine writer, whose childhood home in Gardiner remains a National Historic Landmark.