Analysis of "The Mill"

"The Mill" by Edwin Arlington Robinson is on page 395 of Sound and Sense 11. "The Mill uses a grim tone as well as morbid diction to portray the hopelessness of this transitional time in history, when modernization began to take precedence over human life. The miller, after losing his job, loses his identity, and hangs himself in his mill. His wife, finding him hanged, drowns herself. This poem thoroughly portrays the hardships of working life, especially when one has nothing to live for. It also brings up the insignificance of the individual, and the hopelessness we can all experience.

"The Mill" is a dark poem with a seemingly uncaring tone. Yet, this uncaring, cold tone, forms the base for the theme. . Yet the speaker finds no need to over explain anything that occurs. The simplicity of the diction, cold, warm, dead, creates the matter of fact poem. As if a computer reading an article about the brutal deaths of a husband and wife, the speaker says what happened, and nothing more. This simplicity, no names are given, and the situatino explained, is to show that these people really didn't matter. This is the feeling of so many people, there's no use getting hyped up over this one couple. This hopelessness, being a theme of the poem, is brought about mainly by this tone. The tone does not match up with the buildup provided, creating the shock of the reader, who may not have expected these deaths based on the simple word choice and rhyming method. The other technique used to stress the theme of the poem is the grim diction used. In the first stanza, an extreme sense of nervousness is created for the reader, as the incredible length the husband has been gone for, coupled with hopelessness of his last statement leads to imagining the worst. The "cold tea" and "dead fire" add to the death and lost time motifs. "Sick with a fear that had no form", of course adds to the anxiety. However, a contrast is made. The phrase "the warm and mealy fragrance of the past" suggests past comforts that only have hints of remaining, and juxtaposes the current condition of death and cold. The last stanza including "dark", "night'', and "black water", contains one of the most poignant themes of the poem. The insignificance of each one of u s.

"Black water, smooth above the weir
Like starry velvet in the night,
Though ruffled once, would soon appear
The same as ever to the sight."

I'll admit, the reason I read this was because it was about a miller, something my ancestors must have been at some point. While no one likes dark and sad poems, I really liked how the poet brought out the darkness and hopelessness in "The Mill". I was also really surprised- the rhyming of poems always makes me take them less seriously, and the language of the poem wasn't really helping, but the content completely contrasted this, and is powerful in this way. One of the poems I most remember is "Terrence this is stupid stuff", and I like to apply the theme of that poem to every "sad poem", using it as a learning experience.