Explication on the Poem "Racist Rot" by John Bryant

In my opinion, this poem is talking about Racism, obviously, as you may already guess from the title: Racist Rot. Even from the title alone, we could already conclude that this poem would be talking about the clashes that happen in society because of Racism.

Explication on the Poem "Hello, Hello Henry" by Maxine Kumine

Hello, Hello Henry
(Maxine Kumin, 1982)

My neighbor in the country, Henry Manley,
with a washpot warming on his woodstove,
with a heifer and two goats and yearly chickens,
has outlasted Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill
but something’s stirring in him in his dotage

Last fall he dug a hole and moved his privy
and a year ago in April reamed his well out.
when the country sent a truck and poles and cable,
his daddy ran the linemen off with a gunshot
and swore he’d die by oil lamp, and did.

Now you tell me that all yesterday in Boston
you set your city phone at mine, and had it ringing
inside a dead apartment for three hours
room after empty room, to keep your busy.
I hear it in my head, that ranting summons.

That must be about the time that Henry
walked up two miles, shy as a girl come calling,
to tell me he has a phone now, 264, ring two.
It rang one time last week – wrong number.
He’d be pleased if one day I would think to call him

Hello, hello, Henry? Is that you?

Explication on the Poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Richard Cory
by  Edwin Arlington Robinson

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.


Paraphrase:
1. Every time Richard Cory went to town, People always looked at him because he was a rich man and always looked clean and slender, different from other people in town.
2. He was never show himself off and he also always polite when he talked. But he still made our heart jump every time he greeted us and he looked attractive when he walked.
3. He was a rich and an educated person, and we always wish to be him.
4. We worked, but it was never enough to buy meat and the bread that we could afford wasn’t that great either. On the other hand, Richard Cory, who had everything, just went off and killed himself.