Richard Cory Poem Analysis

The poem "Richard Cory" is Robinson's famous poem about a man named Richard Cory who was outwardly wealthy and admirable to many. The poem adopts an overly narrative style. Through this style, the poet is able to detail the life and times of Robinson Cory as a loner of the upper social class in America. It is a tale of internal conflict and dissatisfaction experienced by a man who everybody admired. The persona describes him using finest terms such as ‘gentleman' to denote of how people of the lower and middle social class viewed him. In the opening stanza, Richard is regarded as being a "gentleman from sole to crown" (ln 3, Robinson). The statement means that every aspect of his life seemed perfect in the eyes of his neighbors and community.

Most probably, the persona is an individual from the middle social class who admires Cory's wealth and lifestyle. He likened his life to that of a king, in fact, better than that of a king. The persona says "And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—" (ln 9, Robinson). The other thing that is overly admirable about the persona's admiration of Richard Cory is how he describes his mannerism. The people of the lower social class admired to be like Richard Cory as they believed that he had everything. In the third stanza, the persona says "In fine, we thought that he had everything" (ln 11,

First, the poem adopts an overly narrative style where the story of the life of Richard Cory and how he shoots himself is told from a second person perspective. The other important stylistic device that everyone could note was the use of irony. It is ironical for that a man who everybody admired shoots himself. The poem refutes the belief that wealth and happiness cannot be divorced from each other. However, Richard Cory's act of shooting himself proves this wrong. It is the opposite of what many had expected. There is also a lot of suspense in the poem. The poem opens up with a pleasant description of Richard Cory. The reader expects that the poem will have a very good description of Cory until the end. However, it ends tragically through