Essay On Richard Cory

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Richard Cory is a poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson that was published in 1897. The poem describes a person who is wealthy, well educated, mannerly, and admired by the people in his town. Many people wish to be like him, but then something that no one would ever expect happens. Richard Cory decides to end his misery by pulling a trigger to a gun and ending his life. No one saw this coming since he was so loved and was so rich.
Robinson uses many different types of literary devices throughout he poem, the first literary device seen is anaphora. Anaphora is not commonly used with poets because they use enough repetition at the end of lines and prefer to not use it at the beginning. Robinson doesn 't go with what most poets do, he used …show more content…

The use of symbolism provides the reader different perspectives of Richard Cory’s life. He tries different ways to show Richard 's wealth and the lifestyle he had. When Robinson wrote “... and he glittered when he walked.” he was showing Richard’s wealth. By using the word glittered he is referring to gold, gold being mostly owned by the wealthy. Here he is showing how Richard had the wealth that others wished he had, yet he didn’t seem to be happy about it like other people would be.
The tone an author uses throughout something is also necessary to look at throughout a poem. The poem starts with more of a jealous tone as well. This is shown when he said “We people on the pavement looked at him;” with saying “we people” he is showing how the people around Richard felt, as if they were less than him. His tone then turns into sadness, he feels sad about the fact that he had killed himself. This sadness is shown when he is reminiscing on the type of person Richard was. Here he lets the reader know that Richard has died and is no longer a being seen by “the people on the pavement.”
Robinson packed a lot of emotion into this poem using those literary devices. He made the reader feel many ways and allow them to understand the life of Richard Cory. Robinson let the reader see that being wealthy and having everything does not make a person happy, and that what happened to Richard can happen to