"Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.
In the poems, "Suicide's Note," by Langston Hughes and, "Richard Cory," by Edwin Arlington Robinson (reprinted in Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine's Sound and Sense, 10th ed. [Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2001] 16 and 385), both Hughes and Robinson speak of suicide even though they take different approaches to the topic. Hughes' and Robinson's works qualify as poetry because their writings are an emotion found in all cultures and eras that found words to express themselves and, according to Robert Frost, therefore qualify as poetry.
In Hughes "Suicide's Note," the reader is told the story through the speaker's eyes. Using only three lines Hughes is able to convey the speaker's desire for death. Hughes uses the repetition of the "k" sound in all three lines "The calm,/ Cool face of the river/ Asked me for a kiss" (1-3). This repetition of the "k" sound allows for the poem's flow like that of a river. Also, the river is asking the speaker for a kiss, so that would mean that death is inevitable in this person's case, similar to a death call. Even though the poem is written so gracefully, it actually seems violent. The reader has no idea the speaker's state of mind before the interaction with the water, so the reader does not know for what reason the speaker would be committing suicide or if they were pushed to commit suicide. All the reader knows is the physical description of the water asking for the speaker to come into contact with it. The river is almost taunting the speaker. The reader can almost hear the hissing sound coming from "kiss." Through these poetic devices Hughes allows the reader to experience what the speaker is experiencing. .
The poem, "Richard Cory," by Edwin Robinson tells of a depressingly lonely man named Richard Cory who he ended his own life.
