Richard Cory

"Richard Cory"

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from head to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But he still fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich--yes, richer than a king--

and admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

About Edwin Arlington Robinson

Robinson was born in Head Tide, Maine, on December 22, 1869, and his poetry reflects the tastes and outlook of the New Englanders of Gardiner, where he grew up. A writer from age 11, he excelled at Latin and English. However, in 1893, after two years at Harvard, Robinson no longer had