How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
No more; I'll launch my yawl—ho, cheerly, heart! and push away for fairy-land—for rainbow's end, in fairy land. (1.29)
The narrator of "The Piazza" talks about launching his boat for fairyland. He's not really launching a boat; he's just sitting there, and journeying out in his imagination. The use of nautical imagery is probably linked to the fact that Melville was best known for travel and sea stories. He's suggesting that the sea stories were fairy stories too; they're both dreams, one's just a little more salty than the other.
Quote #2
"Oh if I could but once get to yonder house, and but look upon whoever the happy being is that lives there!" (1.94)
Marianna dreams that the narrator's house is happy, and that the narrator is happy too. Of course, Marianna is just a dream, making the narrator a dream of a dream. He doesn't exactly seem happy about that.
Quote #3
To and fro I walk the piazza deck, haunted by Marianna's face, and many as real a story. (1.97)
Marianna's story isn't real. In fact, it's barely a story; we don't learn anything about her except that she's sad and lonely. She's more an emotion than a real story with a plot. So this is kind of a warning about what versions of reality we're going to get in this book. They won't necessarily be page turners.