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Robinson, Edwin Arlington Richard Cory

	On-Line Text
Genre	Poem
Keywords	Death and Dying, Depression, Medical Ethics, Society, Suicide
Summary	To the "people on the pavement," Richard Cory looked like he was on top of the world. The narrator of this 16 line poem (four a, b, a, b rhyming stanzas) tells how Cory was physically good-looking, well-dressed, humane, and very rich ("yes, richer than a king"). Yet "Richard Cory, one calm summer night, / Went home and put a bullet through his head."
Commentary	Appearances are deceiving. Depression and despair are not confined to the "people on the street." An easy poem that makes a memorable point, elegantly.
Source	Selected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson
Publisher	Macmillan
Edition	1965
Editors	Morton Dauwen Zabel
Place Published	London
Miscellaneous	First published: 1897
Annotated by	Coulehan, Jack
Date of Entry	06/24/94
Last Revised	01/09/07