Richard Cory

oh man this song! My mom didn't like us listening to it because of the suicide at the end but it's just so fascinating! The song is told through the perspective of a factory worker who looks at Richard Cory as the person with everything. He is revered in the town for his business and his involvement in charity. Then the narrator gives the gut-punch of his suicide. However, the narrator still would rather be dead than poor and I think that this song is showing that you never know whats going on inside a persons head, it's psychology. Depression is a very real diseases but it is often overlooked because you can't see it. You should never want to be someone else because we all have problems of our own and your idealization of someone never accounts for everything in their life.

It was actually E.A. Robinson who wrote the poem.

I think he wants to be like Richard Cory at the end because he is poverty-stricken and would rather be dead than poor.

no i don't think he'd rather be dead than poor, i think that its more broad than that. people all the time want more money and more fun and more priviledges and without realizing that that only goes so far to make someone more happy. it doesn't really make you more happy. it makes it more comfortable to be unhappy, at best. i think that if you are unhappy in general, having an orgy on a yacht won't do much to make you happier. so when the narrator reads that richard cory killed himself, its puzzling, considering that richard cory had everything going for him. however, the narrator still wants to be rich and famous, like richard cory. it doesn't matter that money didn't solve anything for him, the narrator still wants to be richard cory.

and the poem is very good

I have listened to this song for 40 odd years and still love it. I always thought the last chorus was the author showing how foolish he was to want to be like Richard Corey and he definitely did not want to be like Richard Corey after he heard of his suicide. It shows that living a life of working hard and earning an honest wage is also a way to a good life.

I could go on forever about this song, having already picked the poem apart for an English paper. There are two really ironic things here: first, that this guy who looks so fortunate could want to kill himself, and second, that the narrator STILL wants to be like Richard Cory at the end of the song. It's as though the narrator doesn't get it. The very thing that made Cory appear so happy could have made him feel alienated from other people, thus leading to his suicide.

I just got finished picking apart Robert Browning's poem. I think its the theme here is pretty obvious that other people's lives are a contant reminder of why your life sucks. And Money and popularity is overrated. I'm still pondering on the end of the song........I had a clue to what it might have meant when we talked about it in English Class last week..........but it has left me, which is about as frustrating as losing something tangible.

I agree with nearly all that's been posted. I think more generally it touches on the issue of how some people—or maybe all people, only at different times and to different degrees—are desperate and blind and will suffer any cost for what they desire, no matter how self-destructive.

i agree with dj. well put. if you've listened to this song but haven't read the poem, do so. coz the poem is great.

I love this song! This song, I believe is about jealousy. This guy, who was born rich, hates his life. Everyone follows him around & he gives to charity, He doesn't love the money or the "orgies on his yacht." This guy, who doesn't have a lot of money, is jealous. This leads to how people think there's hapiness with only money. There's more to life than that.