Blog Post 3: Miniver Cheevy (Wishes and Dreams)

In the poem "Miniver Cheevy", Miniver is not living in the past, but wishes he was born in that time. Many people often wish that they had been born in a different era, but Miniver takes this dream to a whole new level.

Miniver destroys the life that he has for something that he really cannot control. He wishes that he could live in a time, "When swords were bright and steeds were prancing" (Robinson Line 6). Obviously this dream that he has is not at all possible. He frets and complains throughout the day because he cannot have exactly what he wants. I think that Miniver is extremely arrogant and ridiculous, to want something so much yet do nothing about it.

Miniver makes me want to hate him. I bet that many other readers feel the same way. In a childish way, it seems that he is dreaming of some happily never after, when really he is just a pretentious guy drinking his valuable life away. I could see how one would feel sympathy for Miniver, blocked from the bright light of life, as his brain sulks in misery.

Robinson is trying to tell us to pull ourselves out of the situation that faces us and realize that there is more than that. I think that Miniver represents a blip in our everyday lives that most of us see as adversity and take on, while some can get stuck like Miniver, just, "Scratching his head" (Line 30).