Richard Cory was written in 1897 by Edwin Arlington Robinson. This sixteen-line poem says a lot about human irony. Richard Cory, a very rich man, admired and envied by those who consider themselves less fortunate than him, unexpectedly commits suicide. The most fascinating part of this poem is why did he commit suicide when he had everything? Through their own mental biases and exaggerations of reality, people, by placing Cory on a higher level than themselves, also created a communication barrier which then caused Richard to commit suicide. In the poem, we only know Richard Cory by what people see and think of him. His feelings, except when he commits suicide, are never truly expressed. Throughout the poem, the only thing we learn about Richard Cory are the images that ordinary people have of a man who is almost considered a king. In the second line of the poem, the townspeople express that they feel inferior to Cory when they say, “We, the people on the sidewalk, looked at him” (2). People who call themselves “sidewalk people” might infer that people are homeless; according to them, Richard Cory is considered a king “He was a gentleman from sole to crown” (3). and they are only his admiring subjects. Even the name Richard Cory is an allusion to Richard the Lionheart, or King Richard I of England. Then the audience goes on to describe Richard as a true gentleman: “And he was always quietly dressed,/And he was always human when he spoke” (5-6). These lines show that the audience thinks that Richard Cory never really seemed very rich because he believed that even the poorest person deserved politeness and respect. The word “always” in lines five and six might suggest that the middle of paper ......h will always remain a mystery. People can read the poem and come up with many different hypotheses as to why Richard Cory ultimately killed himself, but we will never know which one is right. This situational and ironic story shows that appearances do not always reflect the true image of man's inner being. Richard Cory is not a king; he is humanWorks CitedBible Gateway." Bible Gateway. Np, nd Web. December 3, 2013. "Richard I Coeur de Lion ("The Lionheart") (r.1189-1199)." The British Monarchy. Np, nd Web. 3 December 2013. .Roberts, Edgar V. and Robert Zweig Literature: Introduction to Reading and Writing Fifth Compact Edition: Glenview., 2012..