In the poem of Richard Cory the 1st stanza 2nd line contains alliteration consonance [p] which

is people and pavement and consider also as polysemy because it has also a double meaning. The 3 rd
line contains polysemy as if there is also another meaning of the line, the sole to crown that means
from foot to head.
In the 2nd stanza 2nd line which says that “and he always human when he talked” is another
collocation because that collocate what is the good characteristic of the human being and also in the
2nd stanza contains phonology parallelism because of the word arrayed, talked, said and walked.
In the 3rd stanza
Richard Cory
By: Edwin Arrlington Robinston

Whenever Richard Cory went down town

We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentlemen from sole to crown,
Clear 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.
 In the poem Richard Cory as I do my stylistic analysis is that I observe in the 1st stanza, line 1
and 2 contains half rhyme with line 3 and 4 because it is involve only the final consonants town and
crown, him and slim. I can see also in the 1st stanza, 3rd line have a polysemy that from sole to crown
means that from foot to head because it is a phrase within multiple meaning. In the 2nd line also have
a consonance of [p] people on the pavement.
In the 2nd stanza you will see the phonological parallelism of arrayed, talked, said, and walked
because it is the occurrence of similar sound of [d] in the end of each line. It also have Onomatepia,
the “fluttered pulses” it is the sound of the fast beat of the heart, also have a assonance of [u].
The 3rd stanza contains assonance (I), rich, richer and king are assonance. 1st to 4th stanza`s 3rd
line contains positive semantics because the last line in the 4th stanza negative semantics contradicts
with the said lines.
In 4th stanza alliteration (w) occurs in first line. The last line is the defamiliarisation because it
contradicts the whole story of the poem. And the last line is the foreground of the poem because as
we observe this line change the whole story of the poem and makes a reader ask him/herself why did
he shoot himself with a gun.
 The poem Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson as I do my stylistic analysis is that the
poem have a style that give a way in which the author gives us a story about the man name Richard
Cory. The author uses the parallelism devices that is rhyme, alliteration, assonance and consonance,
you can see also the pol defamiliarasation, foregrounding and vagueness.
The rhymes schemes of this poem is a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d, e, f, e, f, g, c, g, c because each stanza
occurs a word which ends with stressed syllable. The 1st, 3rd and 4th stanza, the lines 1 and 2 have a
rhyme in the lines 3 and 4, the town/crown, and him/slim for the 1st stanza, king/everything, and
grace/place for 3rd stanza and in the 4th stanza are the light /night and bread/head. They are rhyme
because the repetition of similar sounding words, occurring at the end of lines in the poems. Then in
the whole 2nd stanza is feminine because it involves only the final unstressed syllables rhyming. There
are also we called half rhyme in each line in the stanza. In 1st stanza, line 1 and 3 down/town and
gentlemen and crown. For 2nd stanza the line 1to 4 are the was/always, human/when, fluttered/said,
and glittered/walked. The 3rd stanza have the line 2 and 3 the admirably/every, and thought/that.
Then in the 4th stanza line 1 and 2 are worked/waited, went/meat and cursed/bread. They are half
rhyme because they involve only the final consonants in each line of the poem.
In this poem you can see also alliteration, in the 1st stanza line 1nad 2 the whenever/went for
[w] and people/pavement for [p], in the 2nd stanza line 3 and 4 still/said [s] and Good/glittered [g],
then in 3rd stanza we have the line 4 wish/we/were [w] and last in the 4th stanza line 1 are the
we/worked/waited [w] it have the same sound of consonants and it’s called assonance. Also there is
the onomatopia from the word “fluttered pulses” it is the sound of the fast heartbeat.
There is also a semantic analysis in the poem the polysemy, that the phrase have a multiple
meaning. In this poem in the 1st stanza line 2 and 3, the line 2 is the word “pavement” it has meaning
of sidewalk but in this poem it means that the people who lives in the low class area and in the 3rd line
“from sole to crown” it literary mean at the whole in the shoelace and crown as accessories in the
head but it is mean in the poem that is from foot to head.
The poem have also the semantic parallelism because from 1st stanza to the 4th stanza 2nd line
have a positive semantic because it have a positive thought to the person name Richard Cory while
the last two line of the poem is the negative semantic because it contrast here between line 3 and 4 in
the last stanza wherein there is an opposite idea of death of Richard Cory that happened in a one calm
summer night and also it become foregrounding the text “bullet”, it’s stand out in the whole poem
because you never thought that how good Richard Cory and idolized by the people he died at the end
and it gives a defamiliarasation to the readers. It is become vagueness because the text are gives a
lacking idea to the readers that they can’t understand why at the end Richard Cory shot himself.
 In this stylistic analysis it focus on the discourse and context. In the poem it contains the
transitivity, modality, cohesion and discourse presentation.
First is the transitivity in this poem you will encounter the different types of process that
presented in language by the author. In the 1st stanza 3line, 2nd stanza, 3rd stanza line 1 have a relational
possessive because this lines describe to what to Richard Cory or it is own by Richard Cory. Also in
the 1st stanza line 2 is a type of process of mental perception, this line contains on your own thought
as a reader. In the 2nd stanza 3 line is relation intensive because of the feeling or emotion of the person.
Also in 2nd stanza is verbalization from the word “Good morning” it is what always said of Richard
Cory. In the 3rd stanza line 3 is the mental cognition from the word “thought”. In the 4th stanza line 4
have the material action intervention from the phrase “went home and put a bullet through his head”
it is intention of Richard Cory to take his own life. Also in the 4th stanza line 3 is the material event
because of the phrase “one calm summer night” that it happened in the event.
In the poem also have the modality, the author use this as reflect of the producer’s opinion
on what we are saying. You see the types of modality here is the epistemic in the 3rd stanza line 3. This
line tells as the truth about the utterance, from the word thought that he was everything tells that
Richard Cory is not everything it is also called as weak epistemic. In this poem contains also the
bolomaic in 3rd stanza line 4 from the word “wish” because it desire them be like Richard Cory.
Also this poem contains the cohesive devices, first the substitution of Richard Cory to the
pronoun he, his and him in the poem and the use of conjunctions “but,” “and”, and “or” in the poem.
Also the repetition of the phrase “And he was” in 2nd stanza line 1 and 2 and 3rd stanza line 1.
This poem also contains the discourse presentation the author gives a several of modes of
speech and thought of this poem. First it have a direct speech in the 2nd stanza line 4 “good morning”
that said by Richard Cory. The free indirect speech in the 2nd stanza line 1 and 2 it utter by the third
person even without the uses of the word “that” also in 3rd stanza line 1 that uses the word of “that”.
In the 3rd stanza line 3 is the indirect thought because there are no third person.
 Saint Michael College of Caraga
Brgy.4, Atupan St. NAsipit, Agusan del Norte
www.smccnasipit.edu.com

STYLISTIC
ANALYSIS

JESSA MAE E. MINGKE

BSED -II
STYLISTIC
ANALYSIS
ON
CHAPTER 2
STYLISTIC
ANALYSIS
ON
CHAPTER 3