Edwin Arlington Robinson

Edwin Arlington Robinson
1869 – 1935

Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize in 1921 for this collection of 166 poems, which includes the best examples of his work in both long and short verse forms.

Collected Poems. 1921.
V. The Town Down the River
21. How Annandale Went Out
“THEY called it Annandale—and I was there
To flourish, to find words, and to attend:
Liar, physician, hypocrite, and friend,
I watched him; and the sight was not so fair
As one or two that I have seen elsewhere:
An apparatus not for me to mend—
A wreck, with hell between him and the end,
Remained of Annandale; and I was there.
“I knew the ruin as I knew the man;
So put the two together, if you can,
Remembering the worst you know of me.
Now view yourself as I was, on the spot—
With a slight kind of engine. Do you see?
Like this … You wouldn’t hang me? I thought not.”

Anfang

Richard Cory

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 fact, [*] 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.

[*] statt "fact" auch "fine"; unterschiedliche Satzzeichen in verschiedenen Quellen. Richard Cory taucht als Person in Hank Lopez. Afro-6 auf.

Anfang

Edwin Arlington Robinson –

Modern American Poetry –

On "Richard Cory"

Poets' Corner: Selected Works, u.a. Richard Cory –

Hank Lopez. Afro-6