Richard Cory
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he 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.
-Edward Arlington Robinson
2 comments:
What's inside a person doesn't always show does it? And riches don't make you happy. Lots of lessons to be learned in this one.
Yeah! It's long been one of my favorites not in some morbid way, but because of exactly what you said. The people on the street tend to idealize and envy the rich "gentlemen," and yet money does not make people happy. Where you are in society's stratifications, you have challenges to overcome and you have to consciously work on making yourself happy. Some of the richest people with time on their hands, who outwardly appear like they're on top of the world, are probably some of the most miserable and lonely people on earth.
Thanks for appreciating this poem, I liked it ever since I read it in junior high. I think it was written around the turn of the century...
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