What different portrait of Richard Cory does the song build, compared to the poem?"Richard Cory" by Edward Arlington Robinson

Simon and Garfunkel's song "Richard Cory," written in 1965 and recorded on their second album The Sounds of Silence, portrays Richard Cory as "a banker's only child" who not only is wealthy, but has political connections.  He has "everything that a man could want:  power, grace, and style."  In Edward Arlington Robinson's poem, however, Richard Cory is not portrayed as powerful politically or otherwise; he is simply "richer than a king."  There is also no knowledge by the "people on the pavement" of what he does.  But, in the song, the singer works in his factory and tells about seeing Richard Cory's picture on the society page as well as the rumors of "his parites and the orgies on his yacht."  He is not quite the distant, isolated, elevated "imperially slim" vision that the poem presents although the people who work in the factory only see him in the photos on the society page.

The Richard Cory of the song is a rich and powerful man surrounded by other wealty people whereas the Richard Cory of the poem is simply wealthy, rich like a king and never seen with anyone else.  He appears in town and says "Hello," but there is no apparent socialization that occurs.  Robinson's Cory seems much more isolated from human contact; his separation from the ordinary people seems more apparent as they look up from "the pavement" to this "imperially slim" man who is always alone.