Richard Cory:

E.A. Robinson

• Born on December 22, 1869, Edwin Arlington Robinson was the son of a timber merchant and a civic leader, Mary Elizabeth Palmer.
• Since the age of eleven, Robinson began to write daily, while attending local meetings of his town's poetry society.

E.A Robinson: continuation

• Most of Robinson's poems were greatly influenced by a series of tragedies that occurred upon enrolling into Harvard University
• "Richard Cory" was one of the few poems influenced

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

First stanza

• By the first verse, the reader has a clear understanding of the subject and speaker of the poem
• Speaker: "We people on the pavement looked at him"
• Subject: "Richard Cory...a gentleman from sole to crown"

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

Second stanza

• The speaker depicts Richard Cory's assocation with the lower-class
• "And he was always human when he talked" - Cory never lowered himself to talk the town
• Overall, Cory was a geniune man

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

Third stanza

• By the first verse of the stanza, the speaker reveals Richard Cory's true financial status
• "we were in his place": the speaker is merely drawing conclusions from bare observations

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Fourth stanza

• "So on we worked, and waited for the light" - the speaker struggled economically
• "And Richard Cory...Went home and put a bullet through his head." - Symbolizing happiness and success, Richard Cory killed himself

Literary Devices

• "So on we worked, and waited for the light" (line 13), Metaphor
• "Whenever Richard Cory went downtown, We people on the pavement looked at him" (line 2-3), Alliteration
• "And he was always..." (line 5 & 6), Anaphora

Theme

• The idea that Richard Cory's unceasing wealth allowed him to achieve happiness was false.
• The reader learns that although you might know of someone does not necessarily present the true nature of that person.

Tone

• Knowing that Richard Cory had ended his own life, one would view the overall tone as ironic. Not truly realizing the cause, the readers is led to view Cory's entire life as an ironic cause.

Form and meter

• An iambic pentameter is carried in various verses, "when/EV/er/ RICH/ard/ COR/y/ WENT/ down/ TOWN/"
• The rhyme scheme is carried in an ABAB pattern