First Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry

Featured Photo: Pondering Woman | © Pixabay

Edwin Arlington Robinsons poems are mostly dark, but reflect life in his time quite well.

His poem called Richard cory from the year 1897 could also come from our time and shows how little societies have changed over the centuries, even if technological progress takes on rapid traits.

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.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
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 rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
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,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1897

Edwin Arlington Robinson received the first in 1922 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, which has been awarded annually in this category ever since.