Edwin Arlington Robinson"Robinson has been the subject of more speculation...than almost any other poet of our time" (Franchere 7). Numerous events in his life are reflected through his poetry. Edwin Arlington Robinson was born on December 22, 1869, in his father's home in Head Tide, Maine, next to the Sheepscot River. His family moved to the town of Gardiner, Maine, a few miles away, when he was six months old. Gardiner is Tilbury Town used in his poems. He is the son of Edward and Mary Palmer Robinson. Dean and Herman were his older brothers, Dean was twelve years older and Herman four years older. Researchers assume that he did not find companionship with his brothers. However, one of his companions was an old, beat-up rocking chair. In that chair the 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 would be a highly 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 directed primarily to Dean and Herman; it was almost as if Win (Edwin) had been an unplanned and unexpected child and, therefore, usually ignored (Franchere, 15). It was during his school career that he met Emma Shepherd. She was a beautiful girl from Farmingdale who attended a dance school. Robinson fell in love with her, but it is unknown how much she loved him. However, she sent him flowers on his high school graduation day. Everything changed in the summer of 1889. Robinson's kind, slender brother, Herman, had returned from St. Louis. He became fond of Emma and sought her affection. They married in February 1890. Robinson refused to attend the wedding because he was unable to attend. 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 gradual deterioration. In 1893 America was in a severe depression. Edward Robinson had amassed a considerable fortune which was critically reduced. In 1896 Robinson's mother died of "black diphtheria". There were no undertakers available, which forced the three sons to dig her grave and bury her.