Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Corey” is a somewhat funny, ironic, little poem. It starts with an upbeat mood and “a gentleman from sole to crown”, but in the very last line the mood shifts completely to Richard Corey shooting himself (Robinson 575). With 16 short lines, this poem has a limited amount of interpretation. Corey is a sound man who seems content on the outside, but he clearly has some problem that is not projected externally. It shows that no matter how people may seem, or happy they seem, there is no way to know what they are dealing with on the inside. On the other hand, “he was rich—yes, richer than a king…”, but even this vast accumulation of wealth cannot satisfy Richard Corey. It shows that material items do not bring happiness, and, possibly, that they bring the exact opposite. The money, maybe some sort of stress related to it, caused him “to put a bullet through his head” (Robinson 575).
Henry David Thoreau has the same opinion on materialism as Robinson in “Richard Corey.” Thoreau, in “Walden”, went to the woods, which is exactly where material items are not. He even said that material items are “improved means to an unimproved end” (Thoreau). Although he hardly left society, he was clearly a believer in the idea that money does not buy happiness. He got joy from nature, from the woods, from walking, and similar things that were all free.
Emerson probably has the same beliefs as Thoreau. In “Nature” he said that a harmony between man and nature will bring delight, and, since nature cannot be bought and is not a material item, it can be deduced that Emerson also does not think that money buys happiness. Ultimately, saying that money does not buy happiness is more of a philosophical argument than a rational argument. If nature is what brings a person happiness, then the rational argument would be that nature can be made more accessible by a person with money than by a person without.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Corey.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 575. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
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