Mr. Flood’s Party

poem by Robinson

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Mr. Flood’s Party, rhymed narrative poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, published in his Collected Poems (1921) and considered one of his finest works. The poem is set in the fictional Tilbury Town. The narrative concerns lonely, isolated Eben Flood, resident of Tilbury Town, who climbs a hill above the town one moonlit night and walks down an empty road drunk and alone. Frequently drinking from a jug of liquor, “secure, with only two moons listening,” he salutes the harvest moon, the bird on the wing, and old times.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.