Edwin Arlington Robinson and Edgar Lee Masters, prominent American poets, wrote contradictory poems “Lucinda Matlock” and “Richard Cory.” “Lucinda Matlock” is a poem from Masters’s novel Spoon River Anthology, a series of epitaphs from the perspective of the deceased. Robinson’s poem “Richard Cory” significantly contrasts with Masters’s poem “Lucinda Matlock” in various aspects concerning how each character views life.
Robinson writes in “Richard Cory”—a poem about a wealthy, well-educated, admired man living a false life. The people “thought he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place” (11-12). Moreover, the narrator notes that Richard Cory was “rich—yes, richer than a king” (9). Just at the very end does the narrator mention any detail that Richard Cory was secretly depressed. This poem is a representation of the facade that some people fabricate to hide their inner thoughts of embarrassment, shame, or other feelings of despair. Ultimately, Richard Cory’s depression resulted in him on “one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head” (15-16). Richard Cory teaches its audience
…show more content…
She met her husband, Davis—with whom she raise twelve children, eight of which she lost. Portraying that Lucinda lived a laborious life, she said, “I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, / I made the garden, and for the holiday / Rambled over the fields where sang the larks” (10-12). Nevertheless, she “had lived enough,” and “passed to a sweet repose” (16,17). Lucida refuses to “hear of sorrow and weariness, / Anger, discontent and drooping hopes” because she lived a wonderful life, and she condemns the audience by saying that “Life is too strong for you” (21). Accepting life’s adversities and gifts, Lucida Matlock offers understanding into the true meaning of life and how to be happy: be content with life, including the troubling