1
Richard cory

• By Edwin Arlington Robinson

2
Edwin Arlington Robinson

• Friends helped him arrange the private printing
  of 3 books of his poetry
• Became the most successful American poet of the
  1920s
• Set free from financial worries of his past when
  he was appointed to a post at the New York
  Customhouse by Roosevelt
• Best poems focus on peoples inner struggles
• Paints portraits of desperate characters who view
  their lives as trivial and meaningless or who
  long to live their lives in another time or place
• (p. 664)

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Richard Cory

• Narrative poem
• Describes a person who is wealthy, well educated,
  mannerly, and admired by the people in his town
• But is Richard as happy as people think he is?

4
Speaker

• The voice of a poem
• Although the speaker is often the poet, the
  speaker may also be a fictional character or even
  an inanimate object or another type of non-human
  entity
• Interpreting a poem often depends upon
  recognizing who the speaker is, whom the speaker
  is addressing and what the speakers tone is
• Whenever Richard Cory went to town,
• We people on the pavement looked at him
• Who is the speaker of this poem?

5
End Rhyme

• Occurs when rhyming words are repeated at the end
  of lines
• Whenever Richard Cory went to town,
• We people on the pavement looked at him
• He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
• Clean favored and, and imperially slim

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Stanza

• Group of lines in a poem that are considered to
  be a unit
• Couplet- a 2-line stanza
• Tercet- a 3-line stanza
• Quatrain- a 4-line stanza
• Cinquain- a 5-line stanza
• Whenever Richard Cory went to town,
• We people on the pavement looked at him
• He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
• Clean favored and, and imperially slim
• How would you classify this poem?

7
Activity

• Listen to Richard Cory by Simon and Garfunkel
• Compare the song to the poem
• Rewrite the poem from Richards perspective.