Erster Pulitzer-Preisträger für Dichtung

Beitragsfoto: Sinnierende Frau | © Pixabay

Edwin Arlington Robinsons Gedichte sind meist düster, spiegeln aber das Leben in seiner Zeit ganz gut wider.

Sein Gedicht namens Richard Cory aus dem Jahr 1897 könnte durchaus auch aus unserer heutigen Zeit stammen und zeigt, wie wenig sich Gesellschaften über die Jahrhunderte hinweg verändern, selbst wenn der technologische Fortschritt rasante Züge annimmt.

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, 1897

Edwin Arlington Robinson erhielt 1922 als Erstes den Pulitzerpreis für Dichtung, der seither auch in dieser Kategorie jährlich verliehen wird.