Adrianna Crow

Mrs. Burr, Instructor

English 1010-08
11 December 2014
A Poetic Analysis of The Mill by Edwin Arlington Robinson
In the poem The Mill by Edwin Arlington Robinson, the wife of a Miller is
observed during the stages of her husbands death. The poem is broken up into three
different stanzas each told in a different setting: The millers house, the mill, and weir.
During the first stanza a third party narrator introduces the millers wife and the problem.
He states that the tea was cold and the fire was dead. This indicates that much time
had passed. The narrator goes on to reflect on an event that had happened earlier in
the story when the miller left the house and exclaimed that there were no millers
anymore in reference to the lack of necessity for millers in the time which theyd come
to live in. The millers wife then remembers him lingering at the door.
Robinson uses very good word choice throughout each stanza of the poem to
help send the message across to his readers. In the second line of the first stanza he
uses the word dead when describing the fire. Not only is this a great way to describe
the fire but it is also works as a foreshadowment of what is still coming. The next word
that works well with the concept of the poem is lingered. There is a very different
connotation with the word that its synonym counterparts dont possess. It gives a
different visual image of someone who isnt just staying behind but of someone who is
more stuck behind while pondering something emotional or important. This is exactly

what the miller is doing as he leaves his house and his wife. So consumed by an
emotion of despair and hopelessness.
The second stanza takes place at the mill where the miller had worked before.
The narrator describes the emotions that the millers wife felt as she wandered into the
mill along with senses that accompanied her. He says that she was sick with a fear that
had no form upon entering the mill and having an uneasy feeling about her. He
describes how she knew that she was in the right place as she went searching for her
husband. The millers wife sensed a warmth in the mill that reminded her of her
husband, but she continued to be consumed by fear that she would not find him there
the way he had left her earlier that day. The narrator describes something the millers
wife saw that just stated again the words that the miller had said before he left the
house that there are no millers any more. He illustrates what the wife had seen as
something hanging from a beam which the reader can use inference to decipher as the
millers body.
The word choice in this stanza is used heavily by the reader to help solve the
mystery that is imbedded in the tale. The author expresses a fragrance in the room as
warm and mealy. Mealy is best defined as homely and comforting much like a
homecooked meal. When paired with the warm it causes you to imagine a very positive
feeling throughout the mill, however Robinson is careful to remind the reader of the
situation at hand by using words like fear, no, and past. Each giving a sense that the
warm comforting feeling is no longer available. The last line in the stanza states that the
body hanging from the beams of the mill would not have heeded where she went. Not
only is this line very foreshadowing but the word heeded also is a good way to show

the way the millers wife felt, saying that even the body of her husband would not have
known where she would go next to put an end to his tragic tale.
The last stanza takes place a weir which resembles a low dam like bridge above
a small body of water. This is the most powerful stanza by portraying the dark,
helplessness that consumes the millers wife from the image that she had seen before
in the mill of her husbands lifeless body. The author states that its that picture that leads
the next drastic action to take place saying that if she thought it followed her. The
reasoning that is characterized next is of the millers wife trying to decide what to do
with herself now that her only reason for living was gone. She figures that there is only
one way for her body to stay hidden so that no one would have to find her the way that
she had found her husband and be scarred by that same horrible, gruesome image.
She describes how the water below her was smooth like velvet. The narrator finishes by
saying that although the glassy black water was shattered once, it would return to
normal and not have to been seen, or known, by anyone ever again which is exactly
what the distressed wife had wanted.
Much like the second stanza, the word choice in the second stanza is relied on
heavily to figure out what is going on in the story. In the beginning line, the body that the
wife had seen previously in only called it. This is important because although it gives
reference to the body that the millers wife had seen, it doesnt give the mystery away to
the audience. Robinson describes the water as velvet that was only ruffled once. This
displays a strong visual that catches the readers attention and plays with their sense of
imagery helping them to understand what the millers wife is doing during this painful
moment of decision making in her life.

Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote a story of a hopeless miller who takes his own
life and in doing so scars his wife into doing the same. He starts by speaking the worry
that the millers wife felt when her husband had left so suddenly from the house leaving
only a haunting message. This causes the story to progress to the mill where the wife
goes looking for her husband who never returned home, and her finding is lifeless body
hung from a beam and searing a horrible image into her mind. The poem ends on a weir
where the millers wife takes her own life having nothing to live for, but doing so in a way
that would cause her never to be seen by anyone else the she had seen her husband.
Both word choice and setting play a very important role in this poem giving it a sense of
mystery and a longing to read and re-read it just to understand exactly what message is
meant to be portrayed.