Richard Cory

In the poem, Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson, the speaker is one the people in down town who used to admire Richard Cory. This is shown when the narrator says, “We people in the pavement looked at him” (2). Although the gender of that person is unknown, it is obvious who the speaker is in this poem. Besides, the raconteur is speaking about Richard Cory who used to be the most envied man in town until the point in which the speaker states, “[H]e was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place” (11-12). His life is seen as the highest goal a man could even aspire. Despite he has everything, and everyone wants to be just like him, one night he goes home and “put a bullet through his head” (16). He ends committing suicide to …show more content…
For example, the speaker says, “Old age should burn and rave at close of day” (2). In this statement, that person means that people show affliction and pain when their end is close. Additionally, the speaker gives some example of different men, such as the wise, the good, the wild and the grave. For instance, he or she refers as the wise men who “at their end know dark is right” (4); nevertheless, the speaker notes about them as well, “Because their words had forked no lightning they/ Do not go gentle into that good night” (5-6). The speaker does not judge how these different men has spent their life on, but rather he maintains the idea that all kind of men will “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (3,9,15,19), and that is why he or she does not want his or her father to go gentle to that good night because the speaker wants to know that he does not want to die; also, this is perceptible when the speaker claims, “And you, my father, there on the sad height,/Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray” (16-17). The key words here is “I pray” which is the powerful desire that the speaker must see him showing his feeling and not just be stoic about his death. Finally, the voice of reason does not change at all throughout the …show more content…
S. Elliot in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” uses great variety of symbolism and metaphors which support and develop the central message of his poem (here only three will be chosen). One symbol that is shown in the poem multiple times is the room which in many occasions could represent security and home; however, sometimes, it symbolizes remoteness and distancing of the world and its dangers. For instance, the speaker says, “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo” (13-14). It means that they do not talk in depth but only superficial things, and this connect with Alfred because he never has the bravery and strength to conquer a woman; therefore, women only come and go without noticing him. Moreover, Alfred claims, “We have lingered in the chambers of the sea” (129). The word chamber is an enclosed place which can be consider a room, and this implies that he is with someone else; nevertheless, it is only his own delusions and fantasies. Hence, the symbol of room is an important support and a development element of the poem because it manifests the idea of that he is just a boring man who never has the value to get out of his comfort zone and achieve something beyond himself. Besides, one metaphor that has great significant to the poem itself is when he says that, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” (51). This line could see in first moment like nothing, but when it is interpreted correctly, it reveals some Prufrock’s