In E.A. Robinson's famous poem, "Miniver Cheevy," we meet a character who is convinced he was "born too late," that he was meant to live a far more romantic and exciting life than his "commonplace" world of "khaki suits."
It's one thing to wish you had been born in a different time, but it's quite something else to resent fate for bringing you into the world in the first place. Miniver Cheevy doesn't live in the past--he romanticizes it, assuming that it must have been better than his present.
But where does that romantic sensibility get him? Does it inspire him to take control of his own destiny, to make his present more like his fantasy of the past? Not exactly.
What are we to make of Miniver Cheevy? What might Robinson be showing us by presenting us a character who "wept that he was ever born"?
While you're contemplating that question, listen to this version of the poem put to music:
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