A Strategy for Understanding an Authors Message

(THEME) in a Poem

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,5
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was richyes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:10
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.


Richard Cory
WHENEVER Richard Cory went down
town,
We people on the pavement looked
at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to
crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

This title emphasizes

that the poem is about
Richard Cory.

What is it about him that

we should know?


WHENEVER Richard Cory went down
town,
We people on the pavement looked
at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to
crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

When you paraphrase,

you re-think and re-word
the passages to make
sure you know what the
author is saying literally.
Here the author is
describing how Richard
Cory is considered
gentlemanly and clean.


And he was always quietly
arrayed,5
And he was always human when he
talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he
said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered
when he walked.

When paraphrasing, now

is the time to look up all
words you dont know.
Vocab: arrayed to dress
or decorate in splendid
attire
RC doesnt seem loud or
like he wants to draw
attention to himself. Still,
people are affected by his
presence when he speaks
to them.

And he was richyes, richer than a

king,
And admirably schooled in every
grace:10
In fine, we thought that he was
everything
To make us wish that we were in his
place

Vocab: grace a
pleasing appearance or
effect
RC is wealthy and has
all the social manners
learned from the best
schools. People want
to be him.

So on we worked, and waited for

the light,
And went without the meat, and

cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer
night,15
Went home and put a bullet through
his head.

The people in town

work hard and wait for
their chance to be
favored as RC has been
favored.
Then, on a calm night,
RC kills himself.

First, find interesting word

choices , symbols, figurative
language, allusions, etc.that may
have more than one meaning or
lead us to another level of
understanding that the word alone
wouldnt lead us to.

Words with meanings that can

be related to another idea:
Grace, imperially, light, bread,
crown, king all have
connotations of royalty and
even religion.

What emotional ideas do these

words have?
Are some positive and others
negative?

Why are these words used with

RC? Why do the townspeople
curse the bread (religious
connotation)?

The speaker feels like one of the

townspeople who look up to
Richard Cory and wants what
Think about how the speaker (not
RC has. The speaker feels
necessarily the author) FEELS about
the subject/topic.
bitter that he was not blessed
with the same good looks,
money, charm that RC has.
Why did the author make the
speaker one of the
townspeople? Why doesnt
the speaker seem surprised or
say about what happened to
RC?

In this poem, the shift occurs

at the beginning of stanza
four when the speaker talks
Shift usually occurs between
stanzas towards the end of a poem.
about the bitterness of the
Look for it anywhere in the poem,
townspeople rather than
though Think about a change in any
of the following:
the glory of RC. Shift in
subject
STRUCTURE of poem (syllable

count, verse length, rhyme scheme)

PERSPECTIVE
POINT OF VIEW
SETTING
TOPIC/SUBJECT
And then think about what happens
after that shift or what the author
exposes to us after and during the
shift.

Why does the author have to

tell us how the townspeople
feel and then surprise us
with RCs tragedy?

Title (again) but this time on a

Figurative Level? Sometimes you
can find puns in the title as well as
allusions.
This might also be a good time to
review the AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
for clues to why he or she would title
a work a particular way.
http://www.earobinson.com/pages/Hi
sLife.html

E.A. (as Edwin called himself)

was in love with a woman
(Emma) who married his
brother Herman. After losing
a business, Herman sank into
alcoholism and died. Emma
said that Richard Cory is
about Herman.
Was EA like one of the bitter
townspeople feeling his
brother had it all? Did he
regret his bitterness? Is that
why he wrote this poem?

Topic: Pain and

emptiness
It is NOT a direct reference to
Topic Extended: how
something in the literature but a
people cope with pain
global undestanding or idea.
and emptiness
Theme is the connection of all
parts of TPCASTlooking at
How author feels: All
connections between
connotations, speakers attitude, people feel pain and
what is the big idea in the shift,
how the title re-enforces other
emptiness; even those
ideas
whose lives seem fulfilled
To understand the message, you
need a connectedness to
might try the following:
Topic:
others to feel complete.
Theme is the message the
author gives in a work.

Topic Extended: (what

about the topic-phrase)
Topic and how author
feels about it:

Use the theme as your thesis statement of your

essay
Use specific references from the poem (word
choices, detailsnames, events, places) to
discuss any of the TPCASTT items as they
relate to your theme (for example, write a
paragraph about the speakers ATTITUDE that
will support the theme)
Cite from the poem and explain how the citation
develops attitude, connotation, shift, etc