Ana Westbrook

Professor Wells

Critical Practices

28 February 2020

New Critical Analysis: Richard Cory

In the first stanza, the reader can instantly tell that Richard Cory is unlike the rest of the

town. He lives somewhere high while the rest of the townspeople live below him. Also, the

townspeople look up to him while they are on the lowest part of the pavement. While he may be

above the townspeople in an economic stance, Richard is a gentleman and treats them with

kindness. This is also exemplified by the phrase “gentlemen from sole to crown, clean favored

and imperially slim”.

The second stanza lets the reader know that while the townspeople are envious, they have

an understanding that Richard Cory isn’t the same as some of the other wealthy people they have

met or have heard about. The townspeople say that Richard was always quietly arrayed and

human when he talked to people who were below him. However, the townspeople had an

attraction to him, and he often makes them flustered when he talks to them.

The subject of Richard Cory’s wealth is more than just comparing his resemblance to a

king, it is also mentioned when describing his education. In the third stanza, the townspeople

admit that they think Richard is everything and that they would want to be in his place instead of

being poor and having nothing. Richard was schooled in “every grace” and the reader can

accurately assume that his family is wealthy if he was able to be schooled.

 The townspeople are also envious that they have to work while Richard Cory is blessed

with being educated and wealthy; but they find solace in waiting for the day that they will find

“light”. They are also angered that they don’t eat as well as Richard does, they are forced to eat

bread instead of something savorier, such as the meat. However, in wanting to be Richard Cory,

the townspeople don’t realize that not everything is as it seems. Even the wealthiest man in town,

who is assumed to be happier than everyone, comes home on a seemingly calm night to put a

bullet through his head.

The structure of the poem itself plays into the legend that is Richard Cory. The poem has

four stanza and is written in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef ghgh

pattern. Also, the poem is also written in the past tense of the verb. The reader could assume that

the poet is using past tense to emphasize that Richard Cory has already killed himself and the

townspeople are remembering him through the poem. The poem also has the third person point

of view because of the use of pronoun “he” in the second and third stanzas. The narrators are

also an omniscient point of view because of the use of “we” throughout the poem. The narrators

can show reliability in the poem through their vivid descriptions which displays the sense of

familiarity of Richard Cory.

When moving onto the use of allusive language, there are many allusions to the Bible or

at the very least to the Christian religion. In the bible, Matthew 26:26 explains how Jesus took

the bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to his disciples. Most Christians will bless

their meal before they eat it, as a thanks to God, and in the poem the townspeople cursed their

bread. There are also allusions to the Bible in comparing Richard Cory to a king. In the Bible,

Jesus had a crown of thorns worn around his head and also emitted a sense of lightness to his

followers. In the poem, Richard Cory is said to have a “crown” and “glittered when he walked”.
The poem also can show allusions to the Bible and Christian religion by using words such as

“grace” and “light”.

Each stanza is similarly written in terms of mechanics, and each stanza seems to

contribute to a specific purpose. The first stanza is where the reader is introduced to Richard

Cory and establishes his high-status within the town. The second stanza focuses on humanizing

Richard as the poet tells the reader that Richard was always “human when he talked”. Yet, the

poet still maintains Richard’s royal aura, amplified through “but he still fluttered pulses”. While

some may look at this as an indictment towards Richard’s own nervousness around others,

portraying his personality not as a “people-person”. However, this stanza takes on the feeling of

understatement, telling us that he was “always quietly arrayed”, using Richard’s downplayed

wardrobe as an example. The reader can understand that Richard is a humble man, despite the

townspeople envying him. The third stanza can complete the readers insight into Richard,

externally speaking.

There are many different forms of irony throughout the poem, one is that the narrators of

the poem say that they did not eat the bread that they could get, and they went without the meat

that they could not get. When the narrators finally are able to eat the bread, they choose to curse

the bread since they wanted meat instead. This is ironic because while they are able to have

something to eat, they would rather complain about not being able to have what they really want

while Richard Cory does. Another form of irony is how fast the townspeople change their

opinion of Richard Cory. In the beginning, they talk about how they wish that they were in his

place, but towards the end they say “in fine, we thought that he was everything”.

The most important from of irony in Richard Cory is that he is a man who seems to have

everything he could possibly want, but in the end of the poem, he commits suicide. The
townspeople in the poem are the narrators and give the reader the best understanding as to how

the poem was ironic. The poem states that he was a gentleman, wealthy, educated, and king-like.

However, the poem never gives any insight as to what Richard’s personal life is like. The reader

doesn’t know if Richard is battling with depression until the end of the poem, when he takes his

life with a bullet to the head.

Richard Cory is a narrative poem illustrating how individuals should cherish that which

what we have, because the truly important things in life can be lost if our attention is focused on

envy. By being thankful, one can have a greater sense of fulfillment and can resist the natural

human urge to want what one cannot have. Another illustration that the poem paints is that you

cannot judge a book by its cover. The townspeople in the poem assumed that Richard had a

grand life and was happy; however, he was not happy at all and ended up committing suicide.