Mr. Flood's Party?

Mr. Flood's Party?

When used correctly, symbolism and irony can be very effective. Edwin Arlington Robinson is a master of symbolism, and uses irony like no poet before or after him could even conceive to. In Mr. Flood's Party Robinson uses symbolism to forewarn his readers of Mr. Flood's inevitable death. The irony saturates the poem and sets the reader up for an unexpectedly non-ironic conclusion. Robinson relies on irony and symbolism to better illustrate the old man drinking and talking to himself as he walks home from Tilbury Town on an autumn night.

Edwin Arlington Robinson was born in Head Tide, Maine, on Dec. 22, 1869. He grew up in nearby Gardiner, which became the basis for the Tilbury Town of his poems. Some historians say that for many months after his birth his parents called him "the baby" because his parents had not wanted to have a boy. The name Edwin was pulled from a hat by a stranger at the local tavern who happened to live in Arlington, Massachusetts. Robinson hated his name, for it signified to him that he was unwanted by his parents and unimportant to them as well. Robinson described his childhood as stark and unhappy; he once wrote in a letter that he remembered wondering why he had been born at the age of six. After high school, Robinson spent two years studying at Harvard University as a special student and his first poems were published in the Harvard Advocate. Robinson privately printed and released his first volume of poetry, The Torrent and the Night Before, in 1896 at his own expense; this collection was extensively revised and published in 1897 as The Children of the Night. Unable to make a living by writing, he got a job as an inspector for the New York City subway system. In 1902 he published Captain Craig and Other Poems. This work received little attention until President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a magazine article praising it and Robinson. Roosevelt also offered Robinson a sinecure in a U.S. Customs House, a job he held from 1905 to 1910. Robinson dedicated his next work, The Town Down the River (1910), to Roosevelt (Adventures 479).

The first word of the poem is "old" (line 1). This was showing that Mr. Flood had lived for a relatively long time. Also his name "Eben" (line 1) sounds like ebb, which means to return or fall back from a better to a worse state; to decline; to decay; to recede. It is obvious that Mr. Flood's life was receding from what it once was a "Flood" (line 1) of friends, and happiness.

Furthermore, Robinson created an obvious symbol when he referenced Mr. Flood being alone climbing, "over the hill between the town below, and the forsaken upland hermitage, that held as much as he should ever know," this is clear reference to Mr. Flood's age and to his impending death (lines 1-4). When Robinson discusses the fact that Mr. Flood is over the hill literally, it makes one think that he is over the hill age wise. Then he mentions the upland hermitage, which is obviously heaven or whatever other kind of afterlife there is. Finally, Robinson speaks of the hermitage, "holding as much as he should ever know," this is probably in reference to the myth/reality that when one dies they become aware of all things that are necessary to know, and learn the meaning of life (line 4).

Robinson also uses the Harvest moon as a symbol of Mr. Flood's death. Mr. Flood says to himself, "we have the harvest moon/ Again, and we may not have many more" (lines 9-10). A harvest moon suggests that it is the season of autumn, which comes near the end of the year. Autumn is a symbol because the leaves are changing color, and falling off their trees. That symbolizes one's nearing the end of life.

Another symbol Robinson uses to foreshadow Mr. Flood's death is located in line 53. Robinson says, "There was not much that was ahead of him". Obviously, meaning that Mr. Flood was approaching the end of his life. Although this symbol is not quite as subtle as some of the others, it is just as effective.

The most powerful symbol Robinson uses in "Mr. Flood's Party" is the image of a mother and her sleeping child. Mr. Flood has just taken a drink from his jug filled with alcohol "Then, as a mother lays her sleeping child/ Down tenderly, fearing it may awake,/ He set the jug down slowly at his feet/ With trembling care" (lines 25-28). In these lines, the mother symbolizes Mr. Flood and the jug symbolizes his life. Mr. Flood is "lying down" his life as if he is preparing to die. This image of Mr. Flood is also a very sad one in that it shows he does not have anyone to be with him while he is dying. Robinson is showing his readers a very lonely man who doesn't have much to live for and who might welcome death with open arms.

To appeal to his readers and to gently speak of the sometimes horrifying subject of death, Robinson uses symbolism to describe the coming death of his character, Mr. Flood. Through powerful and symbolic images, Robinson is able to write a beautiful but sad poem about a man who is preparing for his death. If Robinson had not used symbolism to convey his message, the poem would lose its aura of mystery and power and become a plain statement of facts.

Mr. Flood's Party establishes its ironic tone right from the beginning. The title itself is ironic, because a party would lead the reader to believe the poem was about a fun gathering with friends and relatives, but Mr. Flood's utter aloneness seems to be the primary burden of his life and the reason that he talks to himself and drinks by himself. The drink has become his only real surviving friend, the only one that has not left him alone in this world. Mr. Flood's Party is now over. When someone has a party, they generally invite other human beings for companionship. Now, Mr. Flood's life seems over, so he has turned to his jug which represents all that is his past, true or broken, and this becomes his party, his future, his life.

Another noticeable irony "And Eben, having leisure, said aloud." is that the phrase "having leisure" embodies ironic understatement because though he would