Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner

The Man Who Died Twice

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Summary

This long narrative follows Fernando Nash, a once-promising composer reduced to street drumming, as he reckons with squandered genius and belated grace. Robinson's blank verse is austere and probing, more interested in conscience than in scene, and the poem's psychology is its real action. The book extends his lifelong study of failure as a serious moral subject.

Historical Context & Significance

Robinson won the first ever Pulitzer for Poetry (1922) and this was his second win; he is known for his dark psychological portraits.