RICHARD CORY:
STUDY QUESTIONS

• Create a chart that measures “clean favored,” “quietly arrayed,” and “admirably schooled in every grace” against the dollar amounts you think would be necessary for each.

• At the end of this poem, Richard Cory kills himself. Find out the leading causes of suicide among the wealthy and write an explanation for whether you think his deep shameful secret was of a perverted or a non-perverted sexual nature.

• Line 6 says that Cory “was always human when he talked.” Is Robinson saying that he is an alien, a robot, or some kind of animal (possibly a bear or a super-intelligent chimp) who fools most people into thinking he is a person? Are poems usually about robots or cigar-smoking chimps disguised as humans, in your opinion?

• Have you ever cursed bread? Why or why not? List seven types of bread in order, from “delicious” to “hell-bound.”

• Name four or five billionaires who prance around like fools on television just so that they will be spared during the coming social uprising. Compare them to the beheaded royalty during the French and Russian revolutions, and state your opinion about whether or not their antics will save them.