Richard Cory and Mending Wall by Edwin Robinson - Essay Example

Analysis of Two PoemsAmerica, a capitalist country, is inhabited with people whose main focus is to amass huge amount of dollars for themselves. In this case, America is described as a materialistic country with shallow association of success. In addition, Americans are very lonely with a lot of emptiness and shallowness in their hearts as a result of laying a lot of emphasis on material wealthThis essay analyzes the poems of “Richard Cory’’ and “Mending Wall’’ by Edwin Robinson and Robert Frost respectively.

The essay relates the two poems with the aforementioned social crisis in America as far as loneliness, shallowness and materialism is concerned.In the “Richard Cory’’, the author describes a rich man who takes away his own life and relates the suicide case with the rich man’s neighbors who are not aware of the man’s predicament. In this case, Edwin Robinson tries to demonstrate that the materialism has trapped every American does not make always bring happiness to the life.In the entire poem, there is no place that the poet mentions that Richard Cory had family, lovers or friends.

In this case, the issue of loneliness is explicit. Robinson is trying to persuade Americans that companionship is an essential element of life. as such, the poet demonstrates the shallowness that the rich experiences in America. in this, he cites although money is good, it just bring more worries and when a person is used to accessing a lot of money, they will lose the value of it.Richard Cory symbolizes the upper and affluent society. The townspeople are symbolic of those who are in the middle class.

In his poem, Robert Frost expresses his ideas of barriers between communication, people, friendship and the sense of security that people acquire when they build barriers. From line Lines 1-9, the narrator expresses his worry about a phenomenon that he has experienced in nature. He says that the nature does not like barriers. In this case, the poet tries to explain various social barriers that Americans place in their life. When talking about the barrier, Robert Frost criticizes the existence of social differences among the people.

According to the poem, the narrator used to meet with his neighbor annually to mend the wall that separated their land. As such, he signifies the endeavors by Americans to live a secluded life away from other people.The barrier can also be taken to signify the materialism notion in majority of the Americans. It is notable that the wall was used to separate the properties of two neighbors. This indicates that every American wants to amass wealth and keep it away from other people.The use of imagery has come up very well in this poem; the wall is used to signify the barrier to friendship and separation of property.

In additional, there exists a communication gap between Americans as the two neighbors used to communicate once per year when mending the wallsThe two poems clearly demonstrate the affairs of many Americans. It is clear that Americans are no longer social people as many have lost their minds in the endeavors of enriching themselves. As such, they end up being sad; living unhappy life though with a lot of money. The poems have also discussed the social barrier that exists among Americans. They live a sad live with minimum social interaction.

Work CitedRonald. Poetry: Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 2008.