The Man Born In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

In E.A. Robinson’s poem, “Miniver Cheevy,” Minever, the main character, believes himself an anachronism, something/someone out of its historical time. Minever regrets being born during and longs to live in the time of the Renaissance and, “missed the medieval grace/Of iron clothing” (E.A. Robinson 19-20). Minever is a man who believes he was born too late and dreams and dreams of, “Romance, now on the town,/And Art, a vagrant” (E.A. Robinson 15-16). Though Miniver “wept that he was ever born,” he does nothing to try and change his present and enjoy life as much as possible. Like Eveline, Miniver is stuck in the past and can’t enjoy the present; he only relives (in his mind) the past. Eveline, however, was stuck in her past and her previous joy, whereas, Minever is stuck in the past and previous joys of others. So Minever does not relive his own accomplishments, he would rather dream of how it might have felt when the Medicis saw Brunelleschi’s dome fully built dome and realized their success. Miniver wishes he was born with the Medicis and the Renaissance instead of his “boring” modern life.