Richard Cory

I read the beginning paragraph about the author Edwin Arlington Robinson. I have to say that it is quite a background that he has with him. It said in the paragraph that he had begun writing at an early age, and as a high school student he practiced intricate verse forms under the guidance of a local poet (Robinson 573). When I read this I noticed that he was very into poetry at a young age especially for being a high school student. It is incredible to think that he practiced poetry at that young of an age. Then I read that "He continued to write during the two years he attended Harvard University until family financial problems forced him to leave and return to a troubled home" (Robinson 573). When I read this I felt bad for him because I can not imagine the stress he was going through during this time. To top it all off I read, "Robinson's father died in 1892, and his mother died of diphtheria in 1896. One of Robinson's brothers became a drug addict, and the other became an alcoholic; both died early" (Robinson 573). When I read this I was overwhelmed to think of all the stress that this kid had gone through and still made it to be a successful poet. I had a feeling that the story that I was going to read tonight was going to be about death or something that had to do with his life story.

Let me say at the beginning of this story I was reading it and was surprised at the fact that there was no killings or deaths. Richard Cory was a man who was "a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim" (Robinson 575). He was obviously a nice gentleman who like to keep himself clean. He was a gentleman who was rich and had it all going for him. He was "richer than a King" (Robinson 575), he was liked in the town that he was in, but there was obviously something missing in his life because at the end of the story "he put a bullet through his head" (Robinson 575). He was missing something in his life because he had everything going for him. Emerson and Thoreau would have seen his death as a waste of a life because they never wanted somebody to take there own life. They wanted people to live out there lives and live it to the fullest. Richard Cory had everything going for him, but there was something in his life that either was too much or he just could not find the missing piece. Emerson and Thoreau would have not liked to see Richard Cory's death to go to waste.

Bibliography

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. "Richard Cory." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 573-576. Print.