The Lesson of Richard Cory

  

ANDY FLEMING reflects on Western values including aspiration, materialism and consumerism, and through Simon and Garfunkel's superb lyrics realised their is more to human life than money.

In the West, we have many positive shared values concerning the supremacy of human life and human rights, individual liberty and freedom, democracy and concern for the welfare of the vulnerable... the list is pretty lengthy, and although not always enacted upon by our political leaders, they are attributes that we strive towards, and of which we should be proud.

No social or economic system is perfect however, and of course the West shows many negatives too... exploitation of third world countries and their populations for depleting natural resources, environmental destruction and pollution, and the enforced application of our values and way of life on other countries. Two of our worst collective societal attributes are greed and envy, stemming from the imperfect economic system under-pinning our civilisation, i.e. capitalism.

Too much emphasis is placed on individual achievement, success and aspiration, usually measured in terms of material possessions and wealth. This is witnessed in the media by the worshipping of entrepreneurs and business gurus, so-called ‘celebrities’, and the prima donnas on sports fields. Those who don’t make it in the greed-fest, who end up on the check-out tills and cannot rise to the latest performance car or a country villa internalise a feeling of failure and depression... and at times, envy.

Which is a real shame because another of our values is freedom of speech and thought... we quite clearly don’t have to place Mammon, consumerism and materialism in our pole position of priorities. To many of us, money, wealth and power never did, or will, bring happiness and there are far more important things in life such as family, friends, the environment and creative and caring activities.

A couple of decades ago I bought a dodgy old 8-Track Stereo cartridge that unbeknown to me contained a track that is one of the most poignant I had ever heard. The album was Simon and Garfunkel’s 1966 hit “The Sounds of Silence”, and the track was Richard Cory, also covered by Them and Van Morrison. Needless to say like all of Simon and Garfunkel’s music, the harmonies and singing were, of course, excellent but it was the words that really intrigued me. Richard Cory, as it turned out is a narrative poem first published in 1897 and written by Edwin Arlington Robinson.

The character of the poem, Richard Cory, is wealthy, well educated, mannerly, and admired by all of the people in his town. Despite all of this, and on the surface having achieved success and the American Dream he takes his own life, Robinson introduces the classic theme of not judging people by their appearance; rather, there is more to a man than what appears on the surface. The idea that money cannot buy happiness is also strongly purported. The speakers are the townspeople who admire Richard Cory.

Enjoy the classic 1966 Simon and Garfunkel musical interpretation of the poem in the embedded YouTube link above.

Below is Edwin Arlington Robinson original poem in its entirety.

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 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 through his head.