美国文学 文档.doc

Richard cory Critical interpretations Through this story, 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 suggested. The speakers are townspeople who admire Richard Cory. The surface and basic structure of the poem – description, followed by a shock ending, and obvious interpretations as wealth and beauty do not mean one is happy and one does not know the heart of others, make it liable to be dismissed as tritely conventional. In other respects the poem is seen to have hidden depths and to reward careful interpretation, but not very lengthy analysis. In contrast to careful psychological description and analysis of internal states, popular in the 1890s, this poem gives only surfaces, no indication of Corys internal state, which adds mystery, thwarts interpretation, and emphasizes the distance between the speaker (and reader) and protagonist. The reliability of the narrator, as one of the onlookers, is also questioned. The distance between the regal (crown, king), indeed imperial Cory and townspeople is also commented on, as is the general hyperbole fluttered pulses, glittered when he walked. Many of Robinsons poems end quietly; in this the shock ending of Cory is unusual. Miniver Cheevy is a narrative poem written by Edwin Arlington Robinson and first published in The Town down the River in 1910.[1] The poem, written in iambic tetrameter quatrains, relates the story of a hopeless romantic who spends his days thinking about what might have been if only he had been born earlier in time. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Miniver is meant to be Robinsons self-aware skewering of his own sense of being an anachronism or throwback, but others have indicated that, while this may be true, Miniver also represents a critique of Robinsons culture in general.[2] Regardless, the character portrait is similar to Robinson