Fabliau of Florida
Barque of phosphor On the palmy beach, Move outward into heaven, Into the alabasters And night blues. Foam and cloud are one. Sultry moon-monsters Are dissolving. Fill your black hull With white moonlight. There will never be an end To this droning of the surf.
Fabliau of Florida - context Summary
Published in 1923's Harmonium
Published in Stevens s 1923 collection Harmonium, "Fabliau of Florida" reflects the poet s engagement with Florida s landscape and sensuous atmosphere. The short lyric turns a tropical shore into a visionary voyage, urging a phantasmagoric barque into luminous night. The poem frames a continual, almost hypnotic surf and moonlight as sources of imaginative dissolution and renewal, linking local place imagery to Stevens s broader modernist interest in perception and transformation.
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