Richard Cory, by Edwin Arlington Robinson

668 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: A little learning poem analysis

The narrator in “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a low class working citizen telling the reader, in detail, about a distinguished gentleman named Richard Cory who eventually “put a bullet through his head.” Almost everyone, including the narrator, would stare at him with awe every time they saw him. He was “imperially slim”(4), always charismatic and well-dressed. He was extremely courteous and polite. He would please everyone’s heart with a simple “Good Morning.” Then the narrator soon explains that on “one calm summer night” he executes himself by putting a gun to his head. When I first read the poem, I thought it told the story of a young man and his riches. After about my third or fourth reading, I realized this poem is revealing that no matter how suicidal one gets, he or she should know that his or her life is not at its worse.

The first two lines of the poem are “Whenever Richard Cory went down town,/We people on the pavement looked at him.” After only reading those two lines and not knowing what the poem was about, I thought Richard Cory must be someone very special. When finishing the first stanza, I thought to myself, “Who is this man and why are they so star-strucked by him?” After reading it again, I found that maybe the “people on the pavement” worked for a low salary and rarely saw anybody that looked, dressed, and conducted themselves in a pleasing manner. The bystanders are probably questioning what a man with such taste and an aristocrat would ...

Show More
Related

  • The Charmer By Budge Wilson

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Charmer” by Budge Wilson is a short story about a Canadian family that finds misfortune and conflict within their lives. Conflict being the predominant theme which directly affects all the participants in the family. The story is written in third person and narrated from the young girl Winifred’s point of view. Budge Wilson uses Zack’s smothered childhood, charming personality and irresponsible behaviour to create emotional conflict between members of the family.

    Read More

  • Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough traces the early life of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. McCullough examines Theodore's love of the outdoors, his health problems, and his family relations. He also discusses Theodore's time at Harvard University, his first marriage, and his entrance into politics. These experiences helped shape and influence Roosevelt's later years, as President of the United States and other political positions.

    Read More

  • The Barbie Doll and Richard Cory

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    In contrast, Richard Cory was viewed as the gem of the neighborhood, unlike The Barbie doll. Richard Cory was a man loved by all. He was a man that society had put up on a pedestal. He had the looks, wealth and the manner that everyone wanted. Even though people did not really know him they wanted to live like him an...

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Komanuyakaa Facing It

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly. His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him.

    Read More

  • Richard Cory and To an Athlete Dying Young

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speakers in A. E. Housman poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” and Edward Arlington Robinson poem “Richard Cory” serve different purposes but uses irony and rhyme to help convey their message. In “To an Athlete Dying Young” the speaker’s purpose is to show the audience dying young with glory is more memorable than dying old with glory. In “Richard Cory” the speaker’s purpose is to show the audience “you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Here Bullet By Brian Turner

    1714 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Here bullet” is a poem by Brian Turner in which the persona is struggling to coup with the situation in which he finds himself. In this poem the persona is able to establish the low point in which they have reached with lines such as “If a body is what you want, / Then here is bone and gristle and flesh.” (LL 1-2). This line establishes right from the onset of the poem that the persona is at wits in. The poem could leave a first time reader of it wondering how the persona reached this point. This point in which the persona is fantasying about death with lines like “Here is where I complete the word you bring/ Hissing through the air, here is where I moan” (LL 10-11).

    Read More

  • The Role Of Frank And April Wheeler In Revolutionary Road

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout a lifetime, one can run through many different personalities that transform constantly due to experience and growing maturity, whether he or she becomes the quiet, brooding type, or tries out being the wild, party maniac. Richard Yates examines acting and role-playing—recurring themes throughout the ages—in his fictional novel Revolutionary Road. Frank and April Wheeler, a young couple living miserably in suburbia, experience relationship difficulties as their desire to escape grows. Despite their search for something different, the couple’s lack of communication causes their planned move to Europe to fall through. Frank and April Wheeler play roles not only in their individual searches for identity, but also in their search for a healthy couple identity; however, the more the Wheelers hide behind their desired roles, the more they lose sense of their true selves as individuals and as a pair.

    Read More

  • Richard Cory: Comparing Paul Simon and Edwin Robinson

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Robinson's poem, it states, "We people on the pavement." This line clearly addresses the issue of social status for Richard Cory; he is set above the common people. The common people are described as being on the pavement, which leads to the visualization of the people being where Richard Cory walks putting them below him. This line also shows the people seem to look up to Cory, almost admiring him. In the Simon poem, however, the people are no long on the pavement, but in Cory's factory. This transition shows the relocation of peasants on the street, into the factories which the wealthy owned. These discrepancies related to the state of the poor, show the poor moving is directly tied to the passage of time into an industrial machine. The rich still own the poor, but no longer in a completely physical sense, m...

    Read More

  • What, Still Alive At Twenty-Two?

    309 Words  | 1 Pages

    I think in the beginning, this poem is mocking the façade of happiness that many clean-cut individuals have. It is a mockery of the thoughts in the criminal mind. Many times, a criminal cannot bring himself to commit suicide, so they take someone else's life instead. By doing so, subconsciously, the criminal knows he will be caught and in turn, executed.

    Read More

  • Richard Cory Poem Analysis Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    almost seen as a king or a living god. First of all, in line two, the

    Read More

  • Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskel

    1710 Words  | 4 Pages

    Elizabeth Gaskell's Nineteenth Century novel, Mary Barton, is an example of social realism in its depiction of the inhumanities suffered by the impoverished weavers of Manchester, England.

    Read More

  • Imagery In Richard Cory

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    We are able to gather the image of an extremely polished male who is not only a man but a gentleman. Richard is wealthy beyond measure and the people clearly lust for his riches. The metaphor throughout the poem which compares Richard to wealth teaches a strong lesson to the townspeople. The author closes this poem with the lines “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night / went home and put a bullet through his head. (15-16)” If we once again compare Richard to wealth, this phrase indicates that although the townspeople believe they will gain happiness from obtaining wealth, they may actually find that their calm is destroyed by wealth. Without the use of imagery and metaphor acting together throughout this piece of literature, it is my opinion that the reader may not have gained a clear picture of Richard Cory and his relationship of superiority with the people of the

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    George uses different pieces of literature from a variety of authors to bring people in perspective of what is being said in the poem. What George thinks is the major key in figuring out the meaning is by us as readers paying close attention to the three distinct ages that the speaker faces in the poem. Many authors have gave people hints telling them that the poem is a very tricky poem yet people still go with their instincts that have been glued into their brains about “choosing the road less traveled” (Frost). The way George is taking the poem is that there is the speaker which is a middle aged man, the younger self in the beginning of the poem and the older self towards the end of the poem. As the poem goes on the whole time it is talking about sorrows, claims, and choices during the three phases of life to make the person he is today. William George’s work like Nathan Cervo’s is very advanced and is meant for people who understand how to clarify the vocabulary in the source. This would be a great tool for me to use to make sure I am on the right track with my life and taking the path with less complications, making sure I have my head on straight with the correct goals to

    Read More

  • Interpretation of Richard Cory, by Edwin Arlington Robinson

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first line of the poem suggests that Richard Cory wasn't a common person among the people. "Whenever Richard Cory went down town", suggests that Richard Cory lives uptown, probably in some huge house, maybe by himself, and doesn't make it into town very often. The reader could guess that maybe Richard Cory is very old, a hermit, sickly or unlike the other people in the town. After reading the second line, it becomes clearer that Richard Cory is unusual. Now, being old or sickly probably isn't much of an option, so in some way, Richard Cory is very different from the people.

    Read More

  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Heminway

    1402 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Sun Also Rises” was written by an author regarded that many individuals regard as the greatest modern writers; Ernest Hemingway. Written in 1926, in a time that can only be described as firmly within the “modernist movement” of literature, it was heavily impacted upon by the reality of carnage that was the First World War. Critics of this particular period of literature oftentimes refer to the writings that come from this era as being the product of a “lost generation”. This is of course with reference to the fact that those individuals within this “lost generation” had their youth, hopes, and dreams dashed as a result of the horrific carnage and terror of the first global conflict of the modern era (Bercovitch &Cyrus 62). True to this approach, the story in question incorporates key elements of modernism within its plot. The goal of this particular paper will be to provide the reader with key insights into the way in which imagination and elements of modernism/realism are reflected within the work in question. Further, the paper will seek to explore the how imagination in the novel impacts the characters’ lives.

    Read More

More about Richard Cory, by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Open Document