and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.
I think this raises an issue for today about what it means to be an American. What is this need for assimilation to prove your patriotism? And, Does it mean that if you cannot acculturate you are less American?
And if it rains, a closed car at four. And we shall play a game of chess
The game of chess is a rainy day game that seems to correlate with the wet dry theme in the poem. Also I would like to point out as rain equals wet is part of the environment much like the dryness of the brown fog.
Shantih shantih shantih
There is peace in the rubbish. (Spelling?)
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward
A person in charge of where they're going. A person in control of their decision to go against the wind.
At the violet hour
The moment in the day before the sun sets and it is dark.
like a burnished throne, Glowed on the marble
It is weird that something burnished can glow. It feels much like opposites. Also it sits on top of marble which is another kind of rock or stone.
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish
The narrator is surprised to see there is sign of life growing out of the stony rubbish.
with a dash of Indian blood
Perhaps this works as social commentary on the human condition. It feels as if Elsie is this product of colonialism.
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
This poem is direct in its words and its form. Even its title serves a specific purpose to inform the reader. I appreciate the bluntness.
Natural lace
Is this poem a nod to women and femininity? There is something soft about it. I also see nods to domesticity.
Sew grate sew grate
Emily is quite the seamstress.
Ethel
The rule of threes. "Ethel" gets her own line three times. Why is she important?
Go in fear of abstractions
People are more interested in the tangible; things they can see, hear, touch, and smell. Feelings are abstractions yet we spend a good amount of time trying to interpret feelings in a poem. How does poetry make us care about feelings without being abstract. We are forever asking: What is the poem saying? What is this poem trying to make me feel?
iambics
I think it's interesting that the narrator tells us it's poem about a poet and points out a poetic strategy. He does the same thing with patterns.
Petit, the Poet
A poem about a poet.
good
In this he is expressing frustration and surrenders his post as an educator about the world. He decides to let people determine what is good for they are only interested in the good as they see good and not in connection with others in the world.
hill
Over the hill is a play on words. His house is over the hill seeing the town below it works as a metaphor as he is over the hill as a man of a certain age watching others live their lives from a distance.
Where is there? Perhaps they are everywhere in time as they are the clerks of time. Or that as time has gone by they remain in the same place.
The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?
This passage feels all too current with people casting their votes as a way to protect themselves from legal discrimination. He continues to mention the power of the ballot as a not just self defense but as a tool to gain real freedom.