Sunday, June 1, 2014

Need help with a 400 to 500 word personal response to Paul Simon's poem "Richard Cory."

I assume you refer to Edwin Robinson's poem that has been
put to music and "editorialized" by Paul Simon.  I also assume that your question refers
to your second sentence regarding the meter.


It appears
that Robinson's original poem is written in iambic pentameter, meaning that each line
has 10 syllables, with stress on every other
syllable.


Iambic pentameter is what Shakespeare used in his
150+ sonnets. While Shakespeare plays a little (poetic license), jumping between 9 to 11
syllables per line, Robinson's work seems clearly to stick to 10 syllables per line.
 However, as Simon "expands" his version, it seems he, too, increases the number of
syllables per line.  I have charted two lines and there seem to be seven stressed
syllables per line as opposed the more traditional five stressed syllables per
line.


To take the analysis of the importance of meter in
this poem to a deeper level, may I suggest that the lilting rhythm of the poem mimics
the rhythm of daily life in this--or any--town.  The people trudge along each day to
uninspiring jobs, always passing those with better lives--wishing for that better life;
ironically, it appears that Cory has everything anyone could
want.


It is not until the last line, when the author
provides us with an epiphany, that we can better appreciate the poem's "gait."  We are
lulled into a sense of the "everyday" by our narrator.  The last line, so unexpected,
slams us into a wall we do not see coming.  This is very much the way life is: we
traipse along, day to day, and then some tragic thing we see, hear about, read, or
experience brings our lives to a grinding halt, even if only for a short time, while we
try to process this terrible thing that has just confronted
us.


This is what happens with the poem's last line.  That
plodding sense we have abruptly stops the reader in his "tracks," as we perceive Cory's
tragic fate, leaving the reader stunned--and this is the way of life.  As another song
says, "We're all just one step from our knees."  There is no way to know if this use of
the rhythm was intentional on Robinson or Simon's part, but art has a way of taking on a
life of its own when it leaves its creator and interacts with the
world.


I would submit that the meter adds another deeper
dimension to the poem's theme.



Your first
sentence, it would seem, refers to your assignment.  Should you have any further
questions on the poem's content in completing that part, please post another
question.

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