"Richard Cory" is a
narrative poem written by
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.
Early life
Robin ...
. It was first published in 1897, as part of ''The Children of the Night'', having been completed in July of that year; and it remains one of Robinson's most popular and
anthologized poems.
The poem describes a person who is wealthy, well educated, mannerly, and admired by the people in his town. Despite all this, he takes his own life.
The song "
Richard Cory", written by
Paul Simon and recorded by
Simon & Garfunkel for their second studio album, ''
Sounds of Silence
''Sounds of Silence'' is the second studio album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on January 17, 1966. The album's title is a slight modification of the title of the duo's first major hit, " The Sound of Silence", which orig ...
'', was based on this poem.
Context
The composition of the poem occurred while the
United States economy
The United States is a highly developed mixed-market economy and has the world's largest nominal GDP and net wealth. It has the second-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) behind China. It has the world's seventh-highest per capita GDP ...
was still suffering from the severe
depression of the
Panic of 1893, during which people often subsisted on day-old bread, alluded to in the poem's focus on
poverty and
wealth
Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...
, and foodstuffs.
[William J. Scheick.]
Richard Cory
" Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition. Salem Press, 2007. eNotes.com. 2006. May 18, 2011
Robinson wrote "Richard Cory" around the same time as "
Reuben Bright
"Reuben Bright" is a (modified) Petrarchan sonnet written by American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, early in his career, and published in '' Children of the Night'' (1897). The poem acquired some fame as teaching material for English teachers.
F ...
". David Perkins, in his ''A History of Modern Poetry'' (first published 1976), called some of those early poems including "Reuben Bright" and "Richard Cory" "revolutionary", with narrative elements of prose fiction brought into a lyric poetry written about realistic subject matter in vernacular language.
Adaptations
As music
The American composer Charles Naginski wrote the music to "Richard Cory", published 1940, included in Thomas Hampson's Album "I hear America singing" from 2001.
The poem was adapted by the folk duo
Simon & Garfunkel for their song
"Richard Cory". The Simon & Garfunkel version of the song's ending differs from the poem in that the speaker still wishes he "could be Richard Cory", even after Cory has killed himself.
Them (Van Morrison) released their version of Simon's song as a single in 1966. It did not make the charts.
Paul McCartney and Wings
Wings were a British-American rock band formed in 1971 by former Beatle bassist Paul McCartney, his wife Linda McCartney on keyboards, session drummer Denny Seiwell, and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. Wings were noted for their com ...
performed the Simon & Garfunkel adaptation on their album ''
Wings over America
''Wings over America'' is a triple live album by the British–American rock band Wings, released in December 1976. The album was recorded during the American leg of the band's 1975–76 Wings Over the World tour. It peaked at number 8 on the ...
''.
The punk band
The Menzingers
The Menzingers are an American punk rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, formed in 2006. The band consists of Greg Barnett (vocals, guitar), Tom May (vocals, guitar), Eric Keen (bass) and Joe Godino (drums). To date, the band has released se ...
wrote a song titled "Richard Corry" which was inspired by the poem. The difference in spelling from Cory to Corry is because the band has a personal friend whose last name is Corry.
The American composer
John Woods Duke wrote ''Three Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson'', which includes the full text of the poem "Richard Cory".
Martini Ranch recorded a song based on the poem on their album ''Holy Cow''.
Melbourne band
Tiny Little Houses released a song titled "Richard Cory" based on the poem, in October 2020.
Other
A. R. Gurney wrote a play based on the poem, also titled ''Richard Cory''. The play, which is presented with a nonlinear timeline, suggests the reasons Cory killed himself, including family problems and changing views on humanity.
American humorist
Garrison Keillor wrote a variation of the poem for the Introduction to his ''The Book of Guys'' (1993), which suggested that Cory's wife was the reason he killed himself.
[ Garrison Keillor (1993) '' The Book of Guys''. London: Faber & Faber.]
The character Ben Nicholson, played by
Paul Lambert
Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town.
Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...
misquotes the poem in the episode "The Case of the Envious Editor" of the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television series ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
'' (1957–66) starring
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
.
Author George Flynn also directly references the original poem (and Simon and Garfunkel version) prominently in his novel ''Richard Cory Revisited'' as a thematic device.
References
External links
Edwin Arlington Robinson critiques of the poem and other works by the author
*Variations on the Richard Cory story b
A. R. Gurney, and Ed Dixon*
{{Authority control
1897 poems
American poems
Characters in poems
Works about suicide
Works by Edwin Arlington Robinson