May 13 2008
The Poets: Edwin Arlington Robinson - “Richard Cory”
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet who was born in 1869 and died in 1935. In his lifetime, he won three Pulitzer Prizes. His poem Richard Cory was first published in 1897. The poem is about an admired successful man who for inexplicable reasons commits a terrible act one night:
Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
To this day, this poem still sends shivers up and down my spine. Long after I read it I find myself asking questions - what was so terrible that this successful, albeit fictional character did this to himself. This poem makes me think of my life and the lives of others. It makes me want to work hard to not let the rat race grab hold of me and perform its destroying works on me and others.
Richard Cory is a poem that is fodder for continual thought and contemplation.
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