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.Contents
"Richard Cory" is a narrative poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It was first published in 1897, as part of The Children of the Night, having been completed in July of that year; and it remains one of Robinson's most popular and anthologized poems. [2] The poem describes a person who is wealthy, well educated, mannerly, and admired by the people in his town. Despite all this, he takes his own life.
The song "Richard Cory", written by Paul Simon and recorded by Simon & Garfunkel for their second studio album, Sounds of Silence , was based on this poem.
The composition of the poem occurred while the United States economy was still suffering from the severe depression of the Panic of 1893, during which people often subsisted on day-old bread, alluded to in the poem's focus on poverty and wealth, and foodstuffs. [2]
Robinson wrote "Richard Cory" around the same time as "Reuben Bright". David Perkins, in his A History of Modern Poetry (first published 1976), called some of those early poems including "Reuben Bright" and "Richard Cory" "revolutionary", with narrative elements of prose fiction brought into a lyric poetry written about realistic subject matter in vernacular language. [3]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(February 2017) |
The American composer Charles Naginski wrote the music to "Richard Cory", published 1940, included in Thomas Hampson's Album "I hear America singing" from 2001.
The poem was adapted by the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel for their song "Richard Cory". The Simon & Garfunkel version of the song's ending differs from the poem in that the speaker still wishes he "could be Richard Cory", even after Cory has killed himself. [4]
Them (with Van Morrison) released their version of Simon's song as a single in 1966, which failed to make the charts.
American Utah-based Folk band The 3 D’s included a musical interpretation of the poem as the 8th track on their 1964 album “New Dimensions in Folk Songs”, a collection of poems set to original music.
Paul McCartney and Wings performed the Simon & Garfunkel adaptation on their album Wings over America . [5]
The punk band The Menzingers wrote a song titled "Richard Corry" which was inspired by the poem. The difference in spelling from Cory to Corry is because the band has a personal friend whose last name is Corry.
The American composer John Woods Duke wrote Three Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson, which includes the full text of the poem "Richard Cory".
Martini Ranch recorded a song based on the poem on their album Holy Cow.
Melbourne band Tiny Little Houses released a song titled "Richard Cory" based on the poem, in October 2020.
A. R. Gurney wrote a play based on the poem, also titled Richard Cory. [6] The play, which is presented with a nonlinear timeline, suggests the reasons Cory killed himself, including family problems and changing views on humanity.
American humorist Garrison Keillor wrote a variation of the poem for the Introduction to his The Book of Guys (1993), which suggested that Cory's wife was the reason he killed himself. [7]
The character Ben Nicholson, played by Paul Lambert misquotes the poem in the episode "The Case of the Envious Editor" of the CBS television series Perry Mason (1957–66) starring Raymond Burr.
Author George Flynn also directly references the original poem (and Simon and Garfunkel version) prominently in his novel Richard Cory Revisited as a thematic device.
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number ones: "The Sound of Silence" (1965) and the two Record of the Year Grammy winners "Mrs. Robinson" (1968) and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970). Other hits include "The Boxer" (1969), "Cecilia" (1970) and the four 1966 releases "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" and "A Hazy Shade of Winter", as well as the 1968 album track "America".
Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. is the debut studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Following their early incarnation as rock 'n' roll duo Tom and Jerry, Columbia Records signed the pair in late 1963. The album was produced by Tom Wilson and engineered by Roy Halee. The cover and the label include the subtitle "exciting new sounds in the folk tradition". Recorded in March 1964, the album was released on October 19.
Bookends is the fourth studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Produced by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the album was released on April 3, 1968, in the United States by Columbia Records. The duo had risen to fame two years prior with the albums Sounds of Silence and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and the soundtrack album for the 1967 film The Graduate.
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter known both for his solo work and his collaboration with Art Garfunkel. He and his school friend Garfunkel, whom he met in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Simon & Garfunkel. Their blend of folk and rock, including hits such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "America" and "The Boxer", served as a soundtrack to the counterculture movement. Their final album, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), is among the bestselling of all time.
Arthur Ira Garfunkel is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainted with Simon through an elementary school play, a production of Alice in Wonderland, and sought a partnership. Their combined presence in music began in the 1950s, and throughout the 1960s the duo of Simon & Garfunkel achieved great chart success with tracks such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer" and "Bridge over Troubled Water". The latter song's title also served as the name of Simon & Garfunkel's final album in 1970. Simon & Garfunkel split for personal reasons, but the pair have occasionally reunited in the years since. Both men experienced success in solo careers in the years following the duo's breakup.
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.
"The Sound of Silence" is a song by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon. The duo's studio audition of the song led to a record deal with Columbia Records, and the original acoustic version was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia's 7th Avenue Recording Studios in New York City for their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., released that October to disappointing sales. An overdubbed electric remix was released the following year and went to number one on the Billboard singles chart.
"Richard Cory" is a song written by Paul Simon in early 1965, and recorded by Simon and Garfunkel for their second studio album, Sounds of Silence. The song was based on Edwin Arlington Robinson's 1897 poem of the same title.
"The Boxer" is a song written by Paul Simon and recorded by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970). Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it was released as a standalone single on March 21, 1969, but included on the album nine months later. The song is a folk rock ballad that variously takes the form of a first-person lament as well as a third-person sketch of a boxer. The lyrics are largely autobiographical and partially inspired by the Bible and were written during a time when Simon felt he was being unfairly criticized. The song's lyrics discuss poverty and loneliness. It is particularly known for its plaintive refrain, in which they sing 'lie-la-lie', accompanied by a heavily reverbed snare drum.
Roy Decker Halee is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects.
The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964–1970) is the third box set of Simon & Garfunkel recordings, released in 2001 by Columbia Records. This 5-CD set contains all of their studio albums from 1964 to 1970. The CDs are packaged in miniature recreations of the original LP jackets, and an annotated booklet is also included.
"The Only Living Boy in New York" is a song written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon & Garfunkel. It is the eighth track from the duo's fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water. The song was also issued as the B-side to the duo's "Cecilia" single.
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). The writing of the song was begun before the 1967 film The Graduate, which contained only fragments of it. The full song was released as a single on April 5, 1968, by Columbia Records. Produced by Simon & Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the song was written by Paul Simon, who offered parts of it to movie director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The Graduate's soundtrack album uses two short versions of "Mrs. Robinson". The song was additionally released on the Mrs. Robinson EP in 1968, which also includes three other songs from the film: "April Come She Will", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", and "The Sound of Silence".
Richard Cory may refer to:
Sounds of Silence is the second studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on January 17, 1966. The album's title is a slight modification of the title of the duo's first major hit, "The Sound of Silence", which originally was released as "The Sounds of Silence". The song had earlier been released in an acoustic version on the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., and later on the soundtrack to the movie The Graduate. Without the knowledge of Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel, electric guitars, bass and drums were overdubbed under the direction of Columbia Records staff producer Tom Wilson on June 15, 1965. This new version was released as a single in September 1965, and opens the album.
Van Zorn is a comedy of New York City artist life written in 1914 by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It is one of Robinson's two published plays, published just before his volume of poems The Man Against the Sky. As of 1920, Van Zorn's only public performances was a 1917 run given in a Brooklyn hall by a semi-professional company. It has not fared so well in the hundred years since.
The Concert in Central Park is the first live album by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on February 16, 1982, by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded on September 19, 1981, at a free benefit concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City, where the pair performed in front of 500,000 people. A film of the event was shown on TV and released on video. Proceeds went toward the redevelopment and maintenance of the park, which had deteriorated due to lack of municipal funding. The concert and album marked the start of a three-year reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
Children of the Night was the second volume of poetry published by the American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson. While the volume was weakly received, President Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit introduced the work to his father who, knowing his straits, secured Robinson a job at the NY Customs Office.
Simon & Garfunkel: The Complete Albums Collection is the fifth box set of Simon & Garfunkel recordings. This 12-CD Set contains all five of their studio albums from 1964 to 1970, as well as the soundtrack album from The Graduate from 1968, the 1972 Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits compilation album, and four previously released live concert recordings. The CDs are packaged in miniature recreations of the original LP jackets, and an annotated booklet is included.
"Reuben Bright" is a (modified) Petrarchan sonnet written by American poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, early in his career, and published in Children of the Night (1897). The poem acquired some fame as teaching material for English teachers.