Audiobook · read by volunteers
Richard Cory
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
Read by Annie Coleman Rothenberg, Ben MacLeod, Elizabeth Palmer, liz, Joyce Nussbaum, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Kymm Zuckert, Fox in the Stars, Martin Clifton · 12 chapters · 14 min
About the book
Whenever he passed through town, the people on the pavement looked at him. He was clean, handsome, elegantly dressed, rich and admired. Richard Cory is a poem about a man seen entirely from the outside, and about how little those who envy someone can know about what lies behind the face they admire. Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote it in a few quatrains of perfect economy, and its last lines have startled readers ever since. In this recording, twelve volunteers each give their own reading of the poem. Each version lasts about a minute, so you can compare them one after another and notice how a small difference of tone changes the picture. It is a poem of sixteen lines that most readers never forget: a short poem which leaves a long shadow.
Introduction
Edwin Arlington Robinson, who lived from 1869 to 1935, was an American poet best known for his portraits of ordinary and troubled people in small-town settings. Many of his poems are set in an imaginary New England town called Tilbury Town, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry three times. His poem Richard Cory, first published in 1897, remains one of his most widely anthologised works, and it inspired a song of the same name by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966. It is made up of four short stanzas, and it has been used in classrooms for generations as an example of irony.
Many poems that describe a character cut straight to the inmost psychology of their subject. Here the opposite is true: Richard Cory, with all his wealth and charm, is viewed entirely from the outside. The speaker is one of the townspeople who watch him, and as the poem ends we realise with an unforgettable shock just how little we, the narrator, or perhaps anyone really knew about him. The surprise is so sudden that it is best left for the listener to discover.
This recording was made for the weekly poetry project of June 3rd, 2006. Twelve LibriVox volunteers each read the poem. The whole collection lasts about twelve minutes.
Listening to several versions in a row is a small experiment in interpretation. One reader may emphasise the glitter of Cory’s life, another the distance between him and the town. The poem remains short enough to be heard again and again, and each hearing adds something. It is a quick, memorable and thought-provoking listen.
Public domain
Edwin Arlington Robinson died in 1935: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text