Richard Cory (Edward Arlington Robinson)

[flyingrat42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know, we need some other fandoms in here.

ETA: This poem deserves more of an explanation, so I'm adding one.  It's a perfect example of Robinson's elegant, spare, style...but delivers quite a punch to the gut at the end.  I recently rediscovered it, and there's only one Watchmen character that comes to mind...

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Richard Cory
Edward Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured 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 fine -- 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 in his head.