The poem “Richard Cory” is written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, an American poet in 1897.
“Richard Cory” is written in four stanzas of four lines, which makes the rhythm regular because all stanzas look-a-like, and the end of every two line in all stanzas, there is a rime, a full rime: “..Went down town. ..From sole to crown” . These full rimes create a harmony in the poem, and because this poem is written in a regular rhythm, it is said to be metrical. There is no build up for the climax in the poem, and therefore no tension. The effect of that is that the ending gets even more effect full and surprising. The climax is in stanza four, line three and four, when Richard Cory puts a bullet through his head. The climax is separate from the rest of the poem, because it suddenly makes a u-turn of the expectation.
After the structure, the time and setting is relevant. “Richard Cory” is an epic poem, because it tells a story. There is change of place: In the beginning the text is about Richard Cory down town, and the ending is at Richard Cory’s home. Through the story Richard Cory goes through a physical development, from alive to dead. The effect of the change of place is that the plot of the poem seems to stretch over longer period of time.
With that said, the speaker is the next point, and the speaker in “Richard Cory” is the townspeople since the speaker writes: “We people on the pavement looked at him” , and the speaker represents the average person, and the speaker separates himself (the townspeople) from Richard Cory. Through the text the speaker describes Richard Cory as a man with an exclusive lifestyle, which is the lifestyle the speaker wants to have. The long of the short is, that the speaker is an average person, which looks at Richard Cory’s life as the perfect life.
Related to the speaker, Richard Cory is the next point. Richard Cory was a man, who from the outside was looked at, as successful, he always glittered when he walked, he was arrayed, slim...