Richard Cory And T. R. Hummer's Poem

In Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" and T.R. Hummer's poem "Glass Ceiling," they both show how in reality people are shielding themselves from their true emotions and this can lead to very bad situations as we have seen in real-life. When hiding your true feelings or emotions, you tend to put on this fake show for yourself and everyone around you. These two poets clearly reflect on this concept and even in our daily lives there's most likely someone around you putting this "shield" up to comfort the people around them.

In "Richard Cory," Hummer tells the story from third person point of view where he is the townspeople. All the townspeople imagine Richard Cory as the richest, most handsome, and most clean favored guy in the entire town. He was almost like a celebrity, but "..he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked." This shows just how perfect he is, or at least we think he is. The townspeople made the assumption that Richard Cory was perfect "in every grace," but never thought of asking how he was really feeling behind the shield he put up. This is almost like the story of the famous comedian Robin Williams where we thought it was all laughs and his life was perfect and one day he committed suicide when we least expected it.
He talks about his mother but masks her as if she were really his grandmother. Mothers are thought of as being the bossy or strict type, while grandmothers are thought of as being the cool and laid back type. Hummer even says, "A quail down on the covey rise. Impossible shot you may be thinking." He implies that his grandmother did this shot when really it was his mother, once again masking her true