Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Richard Cory (1897) is a narrative poem that tells the story of an upper-class gentleman who is admired and envied by those around him, yet he ultimately commits suicide for unknown reasons. The poem has become one of the most well-known works of American literature, and it continues to be widely studied today due to its exploration of themes such as wealth, envy, class divisions, and depression.
The title character in the poem is described as “a gentleman from sole to crown”—meaning that he was handsomely dressed from head to toe—with “rich garments lin’d with ermine” (ermine being a type of fur). He had money enough that people believed he could buy anything he desired; this led many people to think highly of him despite knowing very little about his personal life or motivations. Despite his outward appearance of success and prosperity, however, there seemed to be something missing internally that caused him great distress: “But still he flutter’d pulseless and white./ Tell you what cause I partially might.”
The narrator paints a picture throughout the work that alludes to how much admiration others have for Richard Cory even though they may not fully understand why they feel so strongly toward him. For instance, at one point it states: “And rich thought us—and rich we knew we were,” suggesting that although everyone felt inferior when compared to Richard’s immense wealth, nevertheless, they also respected his station in life more than their own humble circumstances. This paradoxical situation reveals how envy can often lead individuals away from understanding true contentment within themselves, instead leading them toward wanting things they cannot attain no matter how hard they try or wish for them—just like Richard himself does not seem to find any inner peace regardless of everything materialistic that the external world offers to him on a silver platter.
Robinson captures these complex emotions perfectly through lyrical language combined with subtle imagery, which makes readers question their own feelings about social inequality between classes while examining what truly matters when looking beyond superficial appearances found among wealthy elites like our protagonist here—Richard Cory. It would appear then, after taking a deeper look inside the personae presented here through a poetic verse, that loneliness and despair are equally distributed across all strata of society. Thus, this is the greater truth, and the world needs compassion and acceptance to bridge this gap that exists between disparate parts of the human collective consciousness. Only the reader can answer this burning question left behind in the final lines of this haunting masterpiece entitled simply: “Richard Corey.”