Richard Cory

“Richard Cory” (1897), arguably Edwin Arlington Robinson’s most famous poem, is about perspective and realizing that everything is not always what it seems. About 10 years before the poem was published in a collection, entitled Children of the Night, the United States had experienced a series of economic depressions. The consequences of these economic downturns appear throughout this poem in Robinson’s notorious cynicism, which creates a bleak tone of irony. This situates the poem comfortably within the canon of Naturalism. Robinson’s allegiance to traditional forms reflects his resistance to the growing influence of Modernism that was beginning to gain traction within the literary world. Robinson was a key figure in American Literature during the turn of the 20th century, and many of his poems are set in or take inspiration from the quaint settings of smaller New England towns. Narrated from a small town’s collective point of view, the poem examines wealth, privilege, poverty, and an unexpected suicide.

Note: this study guide addresses suicide and mental health issues, and its content may be distressing to some readers.

Poet Biography

Born in Maine in December of 1869, Edwin Arlington Robinson was a prolific poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.