"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Analysis and Commentary

Copyright 2020 by Gary L. Pullman

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.

Commentary

 

Richard Cory‘s mere presence on the street commands attention from the ordinary people of the town (the “people on the pavement”). The speaker of the poem describes him as “a gentleman,” clean-shaven, and slender, and suggests that his mere greeting excites the ordinary people to whom he speaks and that his jewelry, diamond-studded or otherwise, sparkling on his chest, seems to make him “glitter when he walks”:

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.

Richard Cory does not live among the ordinary people. They are present “on the pavement,” but he sees them only on the occasions that he “goes downtown.” Presumably, when he does go downtown, he is not one of the “people on the pavement,” since he is regarded by them as being not of them. Perhaps Richard Cory, as befitting someone who is “a gentleman from sole to crown” is conveyed down town” in a carriage, chauffeured by the horse‘s diver. In any case, whenever Richard Cory is glimpsed down town, he is envied by the “people on the street,” who see him as a wealthy, gracious, and admirable person of enviable privilege:

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.

For the “people on the pavement,” life is a far from the rich and privileged existence that gentlemen such as Richard Cory live; rather, it is a tedious routine in which they must work and wait for morning, sometimes going “without meat,” cursing their lot in life as they “curse the bread.” Day after day, the poor, hardworking “people of the streets” struggle, cursing their bread, seeing an their occasional glimpses of Richard Cory, a luxurious life such as they can only dream. For them, it must be unfathomable that a man who enjoys such a life of lavish comfort would, on “one calm summer night,” go home and “put a bullet through his head.”

The reader, too, might find it difficult to imagine that a man who enjoys all that Richard Cory is described as having would commit suicide. Does a second reading of the poem suggest why he would do such a thing? The poem offers a few clues with such lines and phrases as

he was always human when he talked

he fluttered pulses

he glittered

went without the meat 

put a bullet through his head