Another Poem

[stoutfellow]

Since, like many people, I have a number of favored poems, here's another, still on the theme of "things are not always as they seem", by E. A. Robinson:


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.

Comments

[filkferengi]

I've always liked this one too.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

That last stanza just kills me. How he gives the last line that sudden finality is beyond me, but the effect is awesome.

[filkferengi]

You can almost hear the heavy pause, then the final noise [kind of like the sound-effect on the Law & Order shows].

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

It always makes an impression on me. One could write a book, I suppose, but I don't know how to say anything meaningful in a few words. Some people don't know when they're well off, and it is hard to see beneath the surface. How much of which was here, we're not told.