What it's about
a man who everyone admires and thinks so highly of, in fact is caught up in his own horrid despair, and ends up killing himself
What it's saying
appearances aren't always as they seem and money surely does not buy happiness-relationships, close ones, are needed in life to be able to be okay
The formation of the poem
"Richard Cory" is a very simple poem: three stanzas describe the subject, Richard Cory, and the fourth stanza shocks the reader with Cory's act of suicide.
The bigger picture
In "Richard Cory," the focus is not on "why" the suicide did what he did; it is on the mystery itself. Certainly, the people who admired Cory because of all he possessed personally and financially did not expect such an act. To them he seemed to have everything worth living for, while they struggled to put food on the table.
