Essays on Richard Cory

‘Richard Cory’ by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a simple poem about Cory which conveys the idea that money cannot buy happiness. It also throws light on misleading outward appearances of people which can easily make us draw wrong conclusions about situations. The poem relates the story of Richard Cory, who was a very wealthy man. He lived the life of a king: rich, elegant, and graceful. Whenever Cory passed by pavement dwellers, he appeared to be godly to those poor people who had seen nothing more than misery in their lives. They could not even earn their daily bread ...

‘Instructor’s Name’

‘Subject’ Poetry Literary Analysis Essay - Richard Cory ‘Richard Cory’ a poem penned by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a narrative poem that delineates the need to cherish what one possess rather than envy others. First published in the year 1897, the poem is one of the most anthologized and memorable works of Robinson. As Morris opines, this poem condenses a man’s life into sixteen lines, and the simplicity and laconic nature of the poem intensifies the ironic touch. In this poem, the poet has made use of irony to convey the context and theme of the poem. Richard ...

Richard Cory and The Atlantic

Can wealth bring fulfilment? It’s a question that could probably be answered using a mixture of permutations and combinations. Richard Cory and the Atlantic share similar views in that, they both address the unfulfilled desires of being content in life. In Richard Cory, a wealthy man has enough money to make most human beings happy, but for Richard Cory, it’s a source to unfulfilled desires. He was a gentleman to the core; he would wish all whom he saw with a good morning, and this amazed the people of the town. It was something that the town people would have least expected from a ...

In the Edward Arlington Robinson poem “Richard Cory,” the titular character is a rich and kind man who has everything you could imagine a person needs. While he is rich, he is also benevolent with his wealth, providing charity and giving what he has to others. He is also very polite and well-mannered. Despite this outward happiness, by the end of the play he abruptly takes his own life. Robinson, in describing the hyperbolically good qualities of Cory, seeks to surprise his audience by showing that even the people’s perception of Cory as happy is proven false. There are ...

Symbolism refers to an individual, position or item which has a significance in itself but indicates other definitions as well. Things, figures and activities can be signs. Anything that indicates a significance beyond the obvious. According to this context, symbolism exist in the poem “Richard Cory,” the play “Fence,” and the fiction story “To Room Nineteen.” Richard Cory is himself symbolic in that he represents the rich personalities in the society that are adored by almost everyone. Edwin Robinson clearly reveals to us in his poem "Richard Cory" that someone else’s lifestyle may not be all that meets the ...

Question 1

However, the larger part of the poem exhibits elements of American Literary Modernism. The aspect of this modernism is that the poem has a very basic language. However most of the poem’s modernistic elements emanate from the meaning of the poem. A lot of unclear things are present in this poem. Additionally, the poem’s mood is also not particularly uplifting. The unclarity of the poem is first displayed in the 2nd stanza where the poet describes a path as “grassy and wanted wear”. This means that less people had used that particular path in comparison to the second path. ...

The Poems “Richard Cory” and “Lucinda Matlock” focus on the contrasting lives of two individuals. The poem “Richard Cory” was written by Edwin Arlington Robinson and focuses on the admirable character named Richard Cory who ends up in tragic death. The poem “Lucinda Matlock” was written by Edgar Lee Masters and focuses on the unfortunate but contented life of an old woman. The two poems which are basically a summary of the lives of two characters are laden with significant differences in terms of the symbols used, the themes and the character traits of their characters. Richard Cory was ...

Both the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem 'Richard Cory' and the song of the same name by Paul Simon tell the tale of the titular Cory, a rich but benevolent man who seems to have it all. He is wealthy, but he uses his wealth well, giving to others when he can, and is polite to others - "He was always human when he talked" (Robinson, line 6). However, this benevolence and his being on top of the world makes his suicide at the end of the poem/song confusing to all. While Robinson focuses on the quiet dignity of the man, ...

Post 1

I enjoyed your responses to the poems “Gone” by Carl Sandburg and “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson poem because both of your analysis showed how the poets, with the subjects of their poems, were challenge people’s assumptions of normalcy during the period of Modernist literature. In “Gone,” Chick Lorimer challenges the idea of what the average woman should do, while in “Richard Cory,” the idea that life is perfect if you are rich is challenged when he commits suicide. It’s interesting that in “Richard Cory” the poorer folks simply say they would like to be in ...

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Corey”

Robinson’s poem, “Richard Corey,” fits into the genre of American Literary Modernism because it deals with disillusionment and individuals “trapped by blind laws of heredity and environment or buffeted with uncomprehended chance” (Perkins 130). The poem is written from the point of view of a poor person who goes “without the meat and cursed the bread” who is admiring and envying a rich man of the town named Richard Cory (Robinson 14). Like many Modernist pieces, it reflects back to an earlier era of literature for contrast, using Romantic language to describe Richard Cory. For example, the speaker says, “he ...

In the W. H. Auden poem “Unknown Citizen,” as well as the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem “Richard Cory,” we see two very glowing (on the surface) accounts of an individual. In the former, we hear about the titular citizen, only known through the weird, abstract figure JS/07 N 378, and in the latter Richard Cory; both of these men are said to have everything anyone could want, and do everything right. However, both poems subtly reveal a darkness and emptiness in the lives of these men that speaks very clearly to the human condition, in particular its apparent futility. In ...