'Particular Persons and Situations'

Edwin Arlington Robinson is likely to remain a one-poem poet for most readers, assuming he is read at all. Of course, one poem is more than most poets are remembered for. Simon and Garfunkel didn’t help when they recast “Richard Cory” as a strident diatribe about envy and class bitterness: “With political connections to spread his wealth around.” That line and most of the rest of the song don’t appear in Robinson’s poem. I’m unable to find any evidence of political sentiments in Robinson’s work. The writer whose work comes to mind when I read “Richard Cory” is Robinson’s contemporary, O. Henry. The poet was deeper and more sophisticated but started out writing fiction before turning to poetry. He even came up with a potential title for his stories, if they were ever published: Scattered Lives. Like a fiction writer, Robinson focuses in his poetry on characters. He was fond of narrative. The final line in “Richard Cory” clicks like a trick ending in one of O. Henry’s weaker stories. I…