“Richard Cory,” a poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, quietly exposes the irony of a rich gentleman’s life. It relates the story of a wealthy man who is admired by many of his workers and the people in town. He seems to have a perfect life; he is nice to people, well educated, just, humble, and wealthy. Despite all of this, Richard Cory shot and killed himself without an apparent reason. The main character of the poem, Richard Cory, is an individual who represents the irony of modern American life. The poem seems to take place during The Gilded Age where the people who had an education were wealthy and the rest of them were just poor. The main thrust of this poem suggests the differences between the wealthy and the poor. During this time, people’s socio-economic classes were easier to identify. Richard Cory belongs to the high economic class, while the narrator fits in lower class. “We people on the pavement looked at him/ He was a gentleman from sole to crown” (2-3). It is a difficult time for working class people to obtain what they need, that is why they want to have Richard Cory’s life. Even though it can be difficult for the reader to know where exactly the poem takes place, the reader can have an idea of the size and system that it has. Robinson’s poem seems to happen in a small town where Richard Cory is one of the wealthiest men. He seems to be known by almost everyone in this town. The poem has a great language use. The poet does not use many metaphors, similes, and symbolism, but the words still have resonance, even though the poem is quite short and literal. The poet describes Richard Cory throughout the poem, giving the reader a clear idea of who Richard Cory is. In the first stanza, the poet tells the reader wh... ... middle of paper ... ..., after reading the song and the poem, the reason why Richard Cory killed himself is because he did not have a dream to fight for. According to the speaker of Simon’s song, “He had everything a man could want/ Power, grace and style” (7-8). When a person has everything, there is not a motivation to keep going; there is nothing to look forward to. Works Cited Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Cory.” Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact ed. New York: Pearson, 599-600. Print. Simon, Paul. . “Richard Cory.” Literature: An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th Compact ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. 600. Print. Sweet, Charles A., Jr. ""A Re-Examination of "Richard Cory"" Colby Library Quarterly, series 9, no.11, September 1972, p.579-582.
Source #3: Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
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...
Richard Cory is a glittering fellow and puts in the effort to interact with his peers, but they look up to him as a king or a man of higher status than them. Though he is rich and educated, he yearns for interaction. The poem shows that they adore him as a God-type figure instead of a mundane individual: “In fine, we thought he was everything/ To make us wish we were in his place” (Robinson 11-12). It seems as if isolation by ignoring the character is the same with the man in “Not Waving but Drowning,”. The man is metaphorically drowning, and he is desperately calling out for help from afar, but everyone is taking the situation the wrong way. The crowd watching him “drown” believes he is doing just fine stating: “Poor chap, he always loved larking/And now he’s dead” (Smith 5-6). They do not reach out to him to find out his true feelings because he appears just fine on the inside, but he is really alone and
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
...X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 8th Ed., edited by Joseph Terry. New York: Longman, 2002.
Robinson, Edward Arlington. "Richard Cory." The Pocket Book of Modern Verse. New York: Washington Square Press, 1954. 153.
Bibliography:.. Works Cited Meyer, M., Ed., (1999). Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.
Nobody was better looking than anybody else,” (627). This quote shows that in Harrison Bergeron’s society, everyone is identical to everyone else. People are not allowed to be unique or different in any way, shape, or form. This is due to the immense pressure of society that forces people to conform. In this case, it is the Handicapper General, one of the most influential powers, that is oppressing the individuals to become similar as well as the common person who is going along with it. When the Handicapper General suppresses George, he is forcing him to conform to be “normal,” and when the majority of the population goes along with it, they are reinforcing the conformism. This idea is also reinforced in the poem, “Richard Cory.” When describing how society views the “perfect” protagonist, the writer explains “In fine, we thought he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place, (Robinson Lines 11-12). This quote shows how society has forced Richard Cory to be this perfect image of a man. Richard Cory was not allowed to be individualistic due to society’s standards. A good man was supposed to be rich, a gentleman, and happy. These qualities of a good person pressed in on Cory and made him become something that he was not. In the end, Richard Cory’s downfall is
Richard Cory poems are a traditional type of poetry found all throughout different time periods. The poems range from the original to song variations, all contributing their own perspectives on what Richard Cory symbolized, and each takes their own distinct form. Richard Cory poetry usual contains the distinct ending of Richard Cory taking his own life, but each poem adds its own variations to this repetitive theme. Throughout the poems, there are also many similar themes, which portray a consistent theme of the American Dream and how it transforms. Many symbolic issues that deal with this dream are related to wealth, which is the most prominent reoccurring theme in the two poems. Whereas Robinson's "Richard Cory" focuses on symbolic issues of wealth during an early time period, Paul Simon creates a contemporary "Richard Cory", showing the transformation of the American Dream coinciding with the passage of time.
In “Richard Cory”, the main character, Richard Cory, is a man who comes across as perfect to others: a gentleman, clean, slim, educated. Richard Cory was admired by all and was the man whom everyone desired to be. Those who had admired him came from a lower class than him and looked up to him as being superior. However, despite Cory’s perfectness that was displayed to others, one night Cory did the unpredictable and shot himself in the head. Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first
Meyer, M. (2013). Bedford introduction to literature: Reading, thinking, writing. Boston: Bedford Bks St Martin’s.
Richard Cory was written in 1897 by Edwin Arlington Robinson. This sixteen line poem tells a lot about human irony. Richard Cory, a very wealthy man, admired and envied by those who consider themselves less fortunate than he, unexpectedly commits suicide. The most fascinating part of this poem is the reason why he shot himself when he had everything? Through their own mental prejudices and exaggerations of reality, the people, by putting Cory on a higher level than them, also created a communication barrier that later pushed Richard to commit suicide.
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2010). Literature an introduction to fiction, poetry, drama and
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