"Richard Corey" research paper: Anaysis of poem

Essay by choachlaxUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, March 2006

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"Richard Corey" was written by a talented poet named Edwin Arlington Robinson. This poem, as well as many of his other works, reflects the life of Robinson because as you will learn, he faced many hardships and had to overcome many obstacles throughout his lifetime.

Edwin Arlington Robinson was born on December 22, 1869 in Head tide, Maine. He was the third of three sons and was considered a disappointment to his mother who wanted a daughter. Robinson attended Harvard from 1891 to 1893 despite his father's doubts about the value of higher education. In the 1890's his family's fortunes began to diminish end up with a series of tragedies that influenced Edwin's life and poetry.

In 1892 his father passed away. The panic of 1893 slowly brought the family into bankruptcy over the next seven years. Edwin's brother Dean became addicted to morphine and went back home because of his health.

Edwin was forced to leave Harvard due to the family's bankruptcy and his mothers dying health. In 1896 his mother died of "black diphtheria" which is an upper repertory tract illness characterized by sore throat, fever, and adherent membrane of the tonsils, pharynx, and nose. Back in those days, this was a horrible sickness. Because of that no mortician wanted to handle the body so the brothers had to lay out their mother, dig the grave and bury her. Robinson met the love of his life while taking dance lessons in 1887. Her name was Emma Shepherd; he found a companion to talk to and someone to encourage his poetry. There was one problem; it was either write poetry of raise a family but not both. He introduced Emma to his brother who later got married together. But Robinson still loved Emma so it forced...