EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON: RICHARD CORY

Edwin Arlington Robinson: Richard Cory

                           Whenever Richard Cory, went down town,

                                                We the people on the pavement looked at him,

                                                He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

                                                Clean favoured, and imperially slim,

                                    5          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 glitter when he walked’.

                                                And he was rich – yes, richer than a king -

                                    10       And admirably schooled in every grace,

                                                In time, we thought 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;

                                    15       And Richard Cory, one calm summer night.

                                                Went home and put a bullet though his head.

POET’S BACKGROUND

Born on 22 December, 1869, in Head Tide, USA. Edwin Arlington Robinson lost his father and sponsor while still a college student, hence, he was unable to complete his studies at Harvard College. Life becomes very hard on him after the death of his father, and he went through the vicissitude of life until his poetry brought him the favour of the then American President, Theodore Roosevelt, who was greatly interested in his poetry. With the help of Roosevelt, Robinson got a clerical job in the New York Custom House, but he did not abandon his poetry, he continued to write poem, and in quick succession his poems won three Pulitzer prizes for poetry. The publication of his poem ‘The Town down the River’ (1910) brought him great acknowledgement and broad acceptance as a poet of consequence.

From then his fame began to spread like wild fire as one of the major American poets.  Robinson was renowned as author narrative verse and his poem, are often based on Authurian   legend. His skillful use of language, and his choice of themes that are of public concern are qualities which won him many honour and distinctions, and they equally endeared him to many of his admirers. His works include Collected Poems (1922), The Man who Died (1924), Tristram (1927).

He died on April 6, 1935.

POET’S BACKGROUND

Suicide is a phenomenon that Robinson reflects upon in this poem. With this imaginative, creative piece, he seek to argue that there is more to every individual person’s physical appearance or comportment than meets the eyes that happy outward appearance cannot erase inward sorrows; and that affluence does not necessarily secure or guarantee anybody’s happiness.

In this poem, Richard Cory symbolizes affluence and comfort but he still lacks something which causes him sorrow and leads him to commit suicide.

THEME

The theme of this poem is that whatever the size of anybody’s good fortune or wealth, there will be something, however little, which causes him sorrow because he lacks it. This can otherwise be simply summarized as everything that glitters is not golden. We can see that the character Richard Cory is richly blessed, so much that he is richer than a king; yet there is something that he desires which he lacks, the frustration of which leads to the suicide he commits.

FORMS AND STRUCTURE

Robinson’s Richard Cory is a simple lyrical poem divided into four stanzas of four lines each. The rhyme scheme of the poem is abad, cdcd, efef, dcdc. On the whole, the poem has four compound complex sentences. Each sentence constitutes a stanza. Each of these sentences is heavily coordinated by the additive conjunction ‘and’ expect for the first stanza. The use of structural repetition is obvious in the poem:

                                                ‘And he was always’ in line 5 and 6

                                                ‘When he talked’ in line 6 and 8

                                                ‘We worked and waited’ in line 13

LANGUAGE AND TECHNIQUE

The language of the poem is simple and prose-like, bud. It is equally rich in poetic diction. It is highly spiced with figurative expressions and it uses a descriptive narrative technique. The story told is presented in the eye-witness account form; and in a manner that clearly shows the contrast between Richard Cory and his admirers, between wealth and poverty. We can see the striking contrast between the following expressions:

                                               

‘We people on the pavement.  (Line 2) meaning the common men who ‘went without meat, and cursed the bread’ (line 14) , that is, those who find it difficult to eat adequately and even to eat balanced diet, on the contrary, Richard Cory was a clean flavoured,  and imperially slim’ (line 4) gentleman, who was richer than a king’ (line 9), but was also ‘admirably schooled in every grace’ (line 10).

With this clever and masterly use of language, the poet creates the images of affluence and wretchedness in a manner that the contrast between the two is clearly spelt-out. The poet is able to achieve this feat through the use figures of speech such as:

                                    Alliteration:                        line 1, 12, 14

                                    Synecdoche:           line 3 and 14

                                    Euphemism:            line 14 and 16

                                    Metaphor:               line 8

The beauty of this poem is also in the fact that the tragic end of Richard Cory is contained only in the last two lines of the poem. The poet is able to keep us in suspense, with his complementary remarkable on Richard Cory, until he breaks the story of his tragic end in the last two lines. This is a good literary technique well-employed by the poet.

REVISION QUESTIONS

1.     Discuss the form and structure of this poem.

2.      What gives the poem its poetic quality?

3.      What is the thematic concern of this poem?

4.      Robinson’s Richard Cory’ is a beautiful expression of contrast. Discuss.

5.      Discuss the language and technique of the poem.

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka