Richard Cory

The poem "Richard Cory" comes from Robinson's 1897 volume The Children of the Night. John Duke also set this text.

Date: 1940Composer: Charles NaginskiText: Edwin Arlington Robinson

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    Richard Cory
    by Edwin Arlington Robinson

    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 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.

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    Richard Cory

    Composer(s): Charles Naginski

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