First Stanza
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.
The poem is rich in language use. The poet does not employ many poetic devices, no metaphor, no simile, no symbolism, but still the words have resonance, even though the poem is quite literal. For example, in the first line, “Whenever Richard Cory went down town,” sets up the dichotomy that holds throughout the poem. If Richard Cory went down town, he must have previously been up town, indicating a wealthy residential neighborhood; whereas “down town” suggests the business district where apartment dwellers and the working class reside.
The main thrust of this poem suggests the differences between the wealthy and the less-well-off. The speaker of the poem belongs to the latter class, and the poem clearly draws distinctions between “us” and “him” (Richard Cory). In the second line, “We people on the pavement” suggests a lower class: we looked up to him as well as merely staring at him as “looked at him” indicates.
The third and fourth lines offer the first description of Richard Cory: the term “gentleman” continues the division being drawn between the two socio-economic classes. A “gentleman” belongs to the gentry or higher socio-economic class than simply “a man.”
Then by claiming that Cory demonstrated this gentlemanly quality from “sole to crown,” the speaker is emphasizing how entirely kingly this Cory was. “Sole” simply refers to his shoes, but “crown,” meaning the top of his head, also produces a pun or a double meaning, including the kind of head-gear a king would wear. This pun is one of the few actual figurative uses of languages used in this poem.