Edwin Arlington Robinson “Robinson has been the subject of more speculation… than almost any other poet of our time” (Franchere 7). Many events in his life are reflected in his poetry. Edwin Arlington Robinson was born on December 22, 1869, in his father's home in Head Tide, Maine, on the banks of the Sheepscot River. His family moved to the town of Gardiner, Maine, just a few miles away, when he was six months old. Gardiner is the town of Tilbury used in his poems. He is the son of Edward and Mary Palmer Robinson. Dean and Herman were his older brothers, Dean being twelve years older and Herman four years older. Researchers assume that he found no companionship with his brothers. However, one of his companions was an old, beat-up rocking chair. In this chair young Robinson rocked, read and reflected on the misfortune of his birth. Dean, gifted and intelligent, was at twenty-two years old on his way to what everyone believed to be a very successful career in medicine. Herman, handsome, outgoing and always popular, inevitably kept his younger brother in the shadows. The father's attention, in any case, seems to have been mainly devoted to Dean and Herman; it was almost as if Win (Edwin) had been an unplanned and unexpected child and, therefore, generally ignored (Franchere, 15). It was during his secondary studies that he met Emma Shepherd. She was a beautiful girl from Farmingdale who went to dance school. Robinson fell in love with her, but it is unclear how much she loved him. Nonetheless, she sent him flowers on his high school graduation day. Everything changed in the summer of 1889. Robinson's suave, slender brother, Herman, had returned from St. Louis. He took a liking to Emma and sought her affection. They were married in February 1890. Robinson refused to attend the wedding because he could not bring himself to witness it. Her other brother, Dean, also loved Emma and attempted suicide on the night of the wedding. Robinson's life was full of emotional tribulations. In 1892, Robinson's father, Edward, died after progressive deterioration. By 1893, America was in a major depression. Edward Robinson had accumulated a considerable fortune which was considerably reduced. It was in 1896 that Robinson's mother died of "black diphtheria". There were no funeral directors available, forcing the three sons to dig his grave and bury him..