Comparing Edwin Arlington Robinson's Richard Cory And Paul Simon

Seen throughout various instances, individuals often envy those who have more money than themselves. This concept is clearly depicted in Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory”, as well as Paul Simon’s remake of that poem into a song also titled “Richard Cory”. The poem and the song are essentially about a rich man named Richard Cory, who is admired yet envied by the people of his town. Little do they know that later on, the man will take his own life, even though he was sought out to have the ideal life image. The two works of art are based off of the same story line, but vary in other individual aspects. Each work of art differs in the presence of its plot, narration point of view and repetition. They can be considered similar in terms …show more content…
The speaker in Robinson’s poem are the less fortunate, lower class townspeople. Robinson’s poem “Richard Cory” opens with the lines, “Whenever Richard Cory went down town, / We the people of the pavement looked at him” (1-2). These lines express the concept of being lower class townspeople by using the word choices of we and pavement. The use of the word pavement could give the reader the impression of a lower class rather than using the word city, town, area, sidewalk, etc. As for the word we, the author continues to use it throughout the poem showing that the speaker is a group of people and does not change throughout the poem. The speaker in Simon’s song is very similar to that of the poem except for the fact that it is more detailed and narrowed down. The speaker happens to be someone who works for Cory, which that in itself expresses that he is part of a lower class than Cory. In Simon’s song “Richard Cory” he wrote, “But I work in his factory” (6). This line expresses that not only is the speaker lower class, but he/she is a factory worker. The speaker in the poem is a group of people, whereas, the speaker in the song is an individual person but it is still the same concept. Although the speakers are similar, the narrators point of views are extremely different. The narration of the poem is partial, which means that they were …show more content…
In both the poem and the song, the tones are admiring, jealousy, and envious. The only slight difference with these tones is how often they are conveyed. In Robinson’s poem, the admiration tone is expressed more over the envious tone whereas in Simon’s song, the envious tone is expressed more over the admiration tone. But, both of the works of art each include around an equal amount of a touch of jealousy to it. Despite the differences in the amount of expression of each tone, the tones are still producing the same concept in both works of art. In both the poem and the song, Richard Cory was only expressed in a positive manner. In Simon’s song he used the phrases “Power, grace, and style” (5) as well as “patronage” (25) to express Cory. By using these specific words, it helped the reader to understand the admiration tone as well as express Cory in nothing but a positive manner. In Robinson’s poem “Richard Cory”, he used the phrases “gentleman” (3), “Clean favored and imperially slim” (4), “quietly arrayed” (5), “glittered” (8), “rich” (9), and “admirably schooled” (10) to express Cory as well. By using these words, it helped the reader to understand the tone and positive manner but it also showed that the poem was based on more positivity than the song. Because of all the positivity and admiration in both the poem and song, it contributed to the irony at the end of the