At the Florida is a collection of poems by Australian poet John Tranter, published by University of Queensland Press in 1993.
The collection contains 54 poems from a number of newspapers and literary publications, such as The Bulletin, both in Australia and overseas.
It was the winner of the 1993 The Age Book of the Year – Poetry Prize.
Contents
"Storm Over Sydney" "The Romans (for Dr Grahame Caisley)" "A Marriage" "Journey" "Ariadne on Lesbos" "Leaving the Sixties" "Days in the Capital" "God on a Bicycle" "The Painted Veil (for Philip Mead)" "Anyone Home?" "Australia Day" "The Moths (for August Kleinzahler)" "Opus Dei" "Gravity" "Decalcomania" "Dark Harvest (for Dana Gioia)" "Stony River" "At the Florida" "Falling" "Hot Nights" "A Man and a Woman" "North Woods (for John Ashbery)" "The Other Side of the Bay (for Pamala Karol)" "Curriculum Vitae" "Con's Cafe" "Another Country" "Cellar" "Cubans" "Oblivion" "Dizzy" "The Narcolept" "Smoke" "Two Views of Lake Placid (for Susan Wyndham)" "Prose Poem: At Naxos" "Snap" "Percentage Macedonian (for John A. Scott)" "Tantrum Gang (for Kenward Elmslie)" "Old Europe" "Exiles" "Snip" "Family Scent" "Acid Rain" "Mahogany" "Gasoline" "Box Contaminant" "A Plume of Ash" "Chicken Shack" "Cable Chimp" "Bachelor Pad" "Bells Under Water" "April Surprise" "Adler, Honda and Co" "Quaker Clambake" "Haibun : Aurora"
Critical reception
In The Sydney Morning Herald reviewer Heather Cam called the collection "a sophisticated cocktail" that "leaves a moody aftertaste and is apt to induce intellectual morning-after befuddlement."
In a survey of the finalists for the 1993 The Age Book of the Year – Poetry Prize in The Age newspaper, this collection was described as "Brooding, nostalgic, but at times disarmingly tender."
Notes Dedication: This book is dedicated to the memory of my mother Anne Katherine Tranter nee Brown 1906-1989
See also 1993 in Australian literature
References