Ken Boothe – "Richard Cory" (1968)

I curse the life I’m living

And I curse my poverty

And I wish that I could be . . .

Richard Cory

The last 2 or 3 lines discussed the famous Edwin Arlington Robinson poem, “Richard Cory.”

The title character of that poem is a man who was envied by all who knew him.  “He was everything,” the narrator says, “to make us wish that we were in his place.”

But one calm summer night, Richard Cory did something that none of his many admirers saw coming: he went home and put a bullet through his head. 

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In 1965, Paul Simon wrote a song that was inspired by the Robinson poem.

But Simon’s Richard Cory is quite different from Robinson’s.  While Simon’s character has many virtues – he “freely gave to charity” and “had the common touch” – he has his share of vices as well.

Poet Edwin Arlington Robinson

Both Simon and Robinson depict Cory as having great wealth, but there is no hint in Robinson’s poem that Cory uses his wealth to do harm.  By contrast, Simon’s Cory is something of a scoundrel – he uses his money to buy political influence, and there are rumors of “orgies on [Cory’s] yacht.”

While Robinson’s Cory is envied by his fellows, he is not resented.  The anonymous narrator of the poem does resent the fact that he works hard but still can’t afford to buy meat for his family, but he doesn’t blame Richard Cory for his marginal existence.  

The narrator of the Simon song does draw an explicit connection between Cory’s wealth and the poverty that is his lot in life.  Simon’s narrator works in Cory’s factory, you see, and every additional dollar in Cory’s pocket can be seen as a dollar taken out of the mouths of his workers and their families.

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Neither the poem nor the song give us a clue as to why Richard Cory committed suicide – in both cases, Cory was ultimately an enigma.

A very young Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon

The difference is that we don’t care much about Simon’s Richard Cory – we’re curious about his reasons for putting a bullet through his head, but we don’t feel like his death is any great loss.

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The chorus of Simon’s “Richard Cory” – “I curse the life I’m living, and I curse my poverty and . . . I wish that I could be Richard Cory” – means one thing when it follows the verses that talk about Cory’s wealth and political influence and the orgies on his yacht.  

But it implies something very different when it’s repeated after the verse reporting Cory’s suicide.  It’s no surprise that the narrator would prefer Cory’s life to his life – but he may also prefer death to his life.

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Click here to listen to Jamaican singer Ken Boothe’s reggae-style cover of “Richard Cory,” which was released in 1968.

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