Identify two poems which could be paired with your novel and explain why you chose them.

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 – 

I chose Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson because I felt as if it really describes Gatsby. Robinson portrays Cory as a wealthy and notable figure in society. Throughout The Great Gatsby, characters (especially Nick) constantly talk and wonder about Gatsby. When Robinson writes "in fine we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place" this really reminded me of Gatsby's life. To a stranger it looks like he has everything; wealth, a beautiful house, and lots of "friends". However, Gatsby's life is far from perfect, as he has built everything around trying to get his true love Daisy back. Although Richard Cory commits suicide and Gatsby is murdered, the circumstances of their deaths were similar. They both seemingly had everything, but there was something missing in their lives that made them miserable. 






Green Light - John Lennon

 THE SECOND COMING
    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.
    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
- William Butler Yeats -

I find it really interesting that this poem can relate to both Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe while also relating to The Great Gatsby. The poem tells a story of how greed can corrupt an entire society. In Gatsby, the “mere anarchy” is both the corruption of the upper class society and Gatsby’s personal troubles with his love for Daisy that isn’t reciprocated.