“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...
...X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 8th Ed., edited by Joseph Terry. New York: Longman, 2002.
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
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.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
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
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
The irony in the poem portrays the theme that looks can be very deceiving. Richard Cory was the perfect man, or so it seemed. No one saw what was going on underneath his perfect disguise. In the beginning of the poem we learn that Richard Cory is perfect and rich. Through his suicide, we learn that even Cory, a perfect man, was not as content as he seemed to others. The common people had a distorted view of Cory. They thought Cory was happy because he was wealthy and came across as perfect when in reality, he had faults and suffered. His appearance was deceiving as he hid his suffering with a mask- his looks, his riches, and the way he kept himself. Since he appeared to be of a higher class and richer than the common people, it would seem as though he would have no problems. Arlington emphasized how Corey had everything with his use of repetitiveness using “And” at the beginning of each line describing Cory’s characteristics. The common people judged Richard Cory based on what they saw, assuming he had the perfect life with everything he had, rather than who he was as a person. In “Cory”, there is no mention of Cory’s life on a personal level. The moral of this is not to judge a person by their looks, but rather who they really are because who they really are can be
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
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.
Meyer, M. (2013). Bedford introduction to literature: Reading, thinking, writing. Boston: Bedford Bks St Martin’s.
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2010). Literature an introduction to fiction, poetry, drama and
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.