Poetry: Irony

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.

                                                                                   Edwin Arlington Robinson

Questions

1) How many stanzas are in the poem?

2) Identify the rhyming scheme?

3) Who is the persona?

4)  Describe Richard Cory.

5)  Why did the people admire Cory?

6) Contrast the lifestyle of Cory to his admirers.

7) Identify 2 devices in Richard Cory.

8) What is the main theme of the poem?

9)  What  is the irony in stanza 3?

10) What is the irony in stanza 4?

11) What is the moral of the poem?

12) Why do you believe Richard Cory was unhappy?