Richard Cory - Edwin Arlington Robinson1869-1935 (1897)

 

The title suggests that the poem is going to be about this person called Richard Cory. The name suggests wealth and privilege. In addition, the title also suggests that the poem is going to be a narrative of the life of this man called Richard Cory.  In a way when reading the poem, Richard Cory may remind one of the poet himself who lived as a misunderstood recluse most of his life. According to the scholar Robert Gilbert, “Robinson established a recognizable set of thematic and technical concerns: ‘themes of personal failure, artistic endeavor, materialism, and the inevitability of change,’ characterize much of his work.” “Richard Cory” deals with personal failure, social aspirations, appearance and reality and materialism. 

This narrative poem consists of four quatrains rhyming abab cdcd efef ghgh. The lines are of uniform length. Each quatrain is made of one sentence formed by two clauses. The first clause ends at the end of the second line in all four stanzas. The tone of the poem is reflective and melancholic. The poem is minimalistic. The poet relies predominantly on a series of visual images to convey his themes.

Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,   

We people [M1] on the pavement looked at him;

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

The poem deals with the following themes:

1.     Appearance vs. reality

2.     The pressure of being on the limelight/ of maintaining status

3.     The gap between the rich and the poor

4.     Perception of happiness and dissatisfaction with the status quo - envy and blind pursuit of what is out of our reach leading to dissatisfaction

The poetic voice identifies himself with “people” – one of many. And he draws a distinctive line between “We people” and this extraordinary being called Richard Cory. The poetic voice remains anonymous – one of the hoi polloi. Richard Cory, for some unspecified reason, goes downtown; downtown is the busy dirty crowded heart of the business part of the town. In the late 19^th century USA, a man like Richard Cory would be quite out of place in a place like that. His is the kind whose businesses would be looked after by factors or lawyers. His role in life would be to be the patriarch of an influential wealthy family. However, the Civil War had put paid to such a lifestyle in most cases. Still many struggled to maintain appearances. Is Richard Cory one of those tragic souls?  

The poetic persona is narrating the events in retrospect. He and his fellow workers had witnessed Cory on his way downtown more than once: “Whenever Richard Cory went downtown,/We people on the pavement looked at him”. For them, he is taking a leisurely walk with none of the worries in their lives to bother him. Consequently, Cory becomes a center of attraction for them. They feel envious of his leisure. Out of their resentment and envy they observe him closely. They come to see certain things about him: “He was a gentleman from sole to crown,/ Clean favored, and imperially slim.” What Richard Cory was, was what they were not. So, they stare at him from their vantage point from the sidewalk as he passed them on his way downtown on the pavement.          

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.

The poetic persona adds more details to the rough outline of Richard Cory he has provided the reader in the first stanza. The man is “quietly arrayed” – he dresses tastefully in an understated way. He does not talk much – which is once again a mark of good breeding – but when he does “he was always human”. In the poetic persona’s circles, these are not the qualities that set a man apart and “fluttered pulses”. He is surprised by the impact Richard Cory has on “We people” – “But still he fluttered pulses” by merely greeting, he notes. Not only that Richard Cory “glittered when he walked” despite his non-macho behavior and understated dress. This seems to puzzle the poetic person. Probably in his circles a man had to dress rather loud and speak and act aggressively to attract attention – to be someone. Written by an American poet and set in an American town, Richard Cory implies royalty. Richard is the name of several kings which happen to contain the word rich. There are many other phrases such as “sole to crown,” “imperially slim,” and “schooled in every grace” suggesting royalty.

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.

The list of Richard Cory’s attributes continues in the third stanza, too. The man is rich, according to “We people” – according to the general consensus he was “richer than a king”. The caesura at the end of the first line implies the pause taken by “We people” to imagine that kind of wealth Richard Cory at hand. Wealth and social graces do not go hand in hand in today’s society. But in Richard Cory’s world, wealth meant one had to possess “every [social] grace”. Richard Cory had been taught these social graces and he has learnt them “admirably”. In his background, breach of etiquette/social graces would result in Richard Cory being ostracized. Considering all these, Richard Cory comes across as paragon of all human virtues – someone almost everyone would aspire to emulate. The poetic persona frankly thinks so: “he was everything/ To make us wish that we were in his place.” This was not just the poetic persona’s idea. Others who were with him, too, shared the thought. One ominous note in the poem is that Richard Cory does not have a family or friends. If he had a family and friends, “We people” would have noted them. It seems despite his perfection he was all on his own. It could also be that his appearance was just that – an appearance and that he could not afford to have friends and family as they would see through his façade into the reality of Richard Cory – the man who is struggling to maintain a façade of his former glory.      

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.

The miracle of Richard Cory passes them by and they reluctantly go back to their work: “So on we worked” – the long vowel sounds and the phrase “so on” in the clause imply heaviness of their heart at being forced to return to their drudgery after the fine sight of Cory. The light they are waiting for could be a reference to an overturning of the system which would irradiate the gap between themselves and Richard Cory so that they could also be like him. It is not about bringing him down to their level but to moving up to his level. The last line of the second stanza aligns Richard Cory with light – he “glittered” when he walked like some divine being that had come down to earth from the sky. In the meantime, “We people” detested their current existence represented by “the bread” and yearned for “the meat” they went without. It must have been quite bewildering for them to learn that their nemesis had killed himself by putting “a bullet through his head.” The shocking event had taken place “one clam summer night” at his “home” – the time and the place are at odds with the horrific thing that had happened and thereby increases the shock generated by the act of suicide. Even in his death, Richard Cory had acted the gentleman he was. The question is why did Cory with so much going for him should kill himself? There is no clear indication as to why. However, the fact that he had often visited the business part of the town can be read as him being financially strained like many men of his class after the Civil War. “We people” saw only the outward appearance of Richard Cory and what he allowed them to see of his personality. They formed their opinion of him based on that – the portrait they had of him, therefore, is incomplete. The appearance of his situation and the reality are surely incompatible as implied by his decision to commit suicide. Richard Cory seems to have it all. The people of the town want to be just like him. In the end though, Richard Cory kills himself, showing the people of the town that looks can be deceiving. One of the themes of “Richard Cory”, therefore, is that wealth and status do not automatically translate to happiness. Richard Cory’s decision to end his life indicates the vast strain one has to bear in order to sustain an image.   

The situational irony of the poem is expressed by the bewildered-melancholic tone and the themes. Situational irony, occurs when the outcome of a situation is unexpected or a surprise. Richard Cory appears to be the perfect man. “We” want to be like him because his life appears to be perfect. In reality, however, Cory yearns for true happiness born out of human companionship and freedom from financial worries. The irony is that Cory who had it all kills himself because he is not happy.        

The poet begins six of the lines with “and” – anaphora – building a lofty picture of Richard Cory. Except Richard Cory everyone forgets that happiness is more important than anything else. By killing himself, Richard Cory shows that wealth and status do not mean a fulfilled life.

Questions:

1.      ‘The poem “Richard Cory” suggests that the belief ‘the rich are happy’ is a myth.’ Comment with close references to the poem.

a.      Agree –

                                                    i.     RC could be an individual or a representative characters

                                                  ii.     How does the poet prove that the rich are not always happy?

 

b.     Conclusion – as a character representing the upper class, RC’s situation illustrates

---

 [M1]There is a clear demarcation or a dichotomy between RC and ‘We people’. What had made it so? How would that make ‘we’ feel about themselves and RC and vice versa?