Criticism on the Poem Richard Cory of Edwin Arlington Robinson

  The poem Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a poem about a man who is everything, and possesses everything. An educated, wealthy, and graceful man but beyond the glittering shadow, conceive emptiness that leads to his suicide. The rhyme scheme is set up in a basic abab cdcd efef ghgh pattern, with the lines divided up into four stanzas, quatrains to be exact. The feet and meter of the lines are classic. The entire poem is written in iambic pentameter Themes of self-deception and spiritual emptiness enveloped the poem, the irony made the theme more complex yet it leaves a lasting impact to the reader. In the first stanza, the author established a figure of an admirable man, he introduced Richard Cory in a way that the reader will easily notice the contrast of the characters since the author or the narrator isolated the character of Richard Cory and included himself to the ‘we’ which are the townsman who admires and looks up to him. In the second stanza, the author builds up or adds up detail to Richard Cory’s description, in this way, a solid picture of a man who is successful, powerful, and admirable. We can see how Richard Cory’s character is highlighted in the second stanza as it only focused on him, “and he was always quietly arrayed/and he was always human when he talk”. We can see from this lines that ‘he’ was being emphasized, thus, supporting and strengthening the details from the first stanza on the purpose of building a vision of a character that is different from those who sees him in the text. This thematic element develops the paradox and the contrast between the two separate entities; Richard Cory who symbolizes wealth and the townsman that symbolizes inferiority or poverty. In the third stanza down to the thirteenth and fourteenth lines, the contrasts not only between the characters are developed but also their social class. From the lines “and he was rich, yes, richer than a king/In fine we thought that he was everything/to make us wish that we were in his place” emphasized the big gap between the social classes. The establishment of envy from the townsmen towards Richard Cory contributes to the theme since the author wanted to emphasize the significance of the revelation on the last two lines. The phrases ‘without the meat and cursed the bread’ were used to redefine the position of the townsmen and how they feel being on that life. The fourteen lines of the poem serve as the preparation, the introduction, and the supporting part that solidifies the vision or perception of the reader so that when the last two lines are revealed, it will have a lasting and deep effect on the reader. The tone is the most dominant element of the poem Richard Cory because its tone adds up to the concept that the author which he used to build up the incidents within the poem and capture the interest of the reader. Being an open-ended poem, it also adds to the artistry and the mystery of the poem. The surprise, the irony, and the conclusion will leave the readers thinking, concluding, and intrigued.