Mr. Flood’s Party: A Cry for Help Edwin Arlington Robinson utilizes his hometown of Gardiner Maine as the setting for many of his poem. He also effectively uses it in his dramatic poem, “Mr. Flood’s Party”. Robinson’s theme for “Mr. Flood’s Party” is that of a man, perhaps Robinson himself, who at one time had great aspiration and high achievements, all to be lost to old age, alcohol abuse and the complementing disease, alcoholism. Using symbols, tone and dramatic irony, Robinson appears to reflect on his own life, as he cries out for help the only way he knows how. Robinson, through the use of very imaginative symbols, allows for a more dramatic and meaningful