My guess is this section refers to the ad men of Madison ave. He aligns the work done in advertising to the worst of warfare and weaponry. Is the speaker saying that the "drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality" are the only natural, uncooked, and not detrimental aspect to their existence?

Capitalism/industrialization alienates and does more harm than good.

Why is the Bronx holy? Is it because for junkies it's Mecca? i.e.. the place to score drugs?

Seems a bit of double talk. On one hand a junkie may have few clothes and literally be close to naked. On the other hand they steadily strip their wit away with the use of heroin etc.

Is he referring to any place in particular by saying "negro streets?" Harlem? Or simply any (urban?) area with a high percentage of African-Americans?

In just the opening five words to Part III, “The Fire Sermon,” the speaker shatters at once our natural inclination to romanticize waterways as self-sustaining and enduring ecosystems.

(The River Thames has a rich history of being depicted this way in literature. For example, in the lines that end this portion Eliot recites the line “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song” from “Prothalamion,” by Edmund Spenser; another example that comes to mind is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, in which Marlow finds great peace and serenity while on the same river.)

With bitter and mournful nostalgia, such portrayals of the river are juxtaposed, as we are given a dose of sad reality when reminded of the river’s impermanence: for in “tent” we think of portable and temporary shelter or canopy. With “broken,” we gain an understanding that the once brimming with life ecosystem in and around the river is now at death’s door, that life is not unfolding as it should and as it once did. Life itself, not just the “last finger of leaf,” is wilting. In this way, the river will soon be just another causality of “The Wasteland.”

What follows in “the last fingers of leaf / Clutch and sink into the wet bank” further suggests that these are the last vestiges of green, lush, leafy life. With the sense that the canopy is fading fast overhead, we then zoom out to see an even more barren and lifeless landscape then first imagined: “The wind / Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.” This paints a picture of a cold and desolate place with little to no sign of life: there is no-one to hear the wind, not even the nymphs. Young, beautiful, and full of life, the departure of these divine spirits suggests that the magic of past literary eras has been forced out as well. However, perhaps this truth is intimated as apropos for a world post WWI -- the ornate literary conventions of the past will no longer suffice for a world in tatters. Such literary traditions will fail to get at the bitter truths. In another context in another poem, “departed” may entail a leave of absence. But not here — the nymphs are dead, rotting away in “The Wasteland.”

Between the lyrics of "Prove it on Me Blues" (though I had to look them up to know what was being sung) and the way Brown talks about her here, Ma strikes me as having, like Hughes, a "soul deep (at least 9 out of 10) like the rivers."

Seems the "low-down folks" Hughes writes about flock to hear Ma. What sort of "negro artist" would he describe her as?

The best sense I can make of this term is that Brown has taken "flivver," a word for a cheap car, and turned it into a verb, something along the lines of "comes drivin in."

Just because "I am the darker brother," forced to "eat in the kitchen," doesn't make me any less a part of America.

Could be seen as three different segments of figurative poetics. "Tomorrow," as in one day, soon. "I'll be at the table," to mean myself and all others like me will be seen as equals, worthy of sharing access to any and all places. And we African-Americans will be seen as equally important "when company comes," whoever or whatever they or that may be.

Seems to be some double talk to "I laugh." In one sense he might find a genuine bit of humor in the absurdity of being sent to eat in the kitchen. But at the same time he is likely pained by the constant exclusion.

Reminds me of the cultural disconnect between the narrator and his brother, Sonny, in Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues." The narrator's idea of a jazz artist is Louis Armstrong. Sonny, his younger brother, scoffs at this, and exclaims, "Bird! Charlie Parker!"

Is he saying these are African Americans who are less affected by "double consciousness?"

Reminiscent of DuBois' "Of Our Spiritual Strivings;"

"This ["American Negro"] longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face."

Reminiscent of how Conrad spoke of the Thames in HoD: "The old river in its broad reach rested unruffled at the decline of day, after ages of good service done to the race that peopled its banks, spread out in the tranquil dignity of a waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth. We looked at the venerable stream not in the vivid flush of a short day that comes and departs for ever, but in the august light of abiding memories."

Both rue the days of old?

wet

The speaker is saying this to someone. Who?

Why go to warmer climates in the winter if earlier you claimed "winter kept us warm?"

Why does winter provide warmth and not summer? All is not well in this world.

All through the poem exercises a need to play with words that have like sounds.

Leave what to me?

Maybe the ages of children?

Seems to suggest a place and theme for the poem --domesticity.

Is Williams still referring to the "young slatterns?" If so, in "sheer" he likens them to "gauzy" and "filmy" (I'm assuming he's using "sheer" for its third definition...or is he?) and emotionless (soulless?) rags except for "terror."

What is voluptuous water and where can I buy it?

Prompts image of a domesticated role for women, untidy and without the need to leave the home but for Sunday.

Earlier the speaker says, "sorry I could not travel both." Now the speaker says I've "kept the first for another day!" So, which is it?

Why apologetic for having to choose one? Simple curiosity or fearful that there is a right and a wrong path?

A few days before Christmas. Aside from being an excellent time of the year for trespassing, what's the significance?

In this context, what does the speaker's uncertainty bring about? Eeriness?

With yourself, or others?

Grassy roads want wear? I usually steer clear since they're likely no longer used for good reason...

The Ruins (1791): "Essay on the philosophy of history, containing a vision which predicts the final union of all religions by the recognition of the common truth underlying them all."

Analogy of Religion (1736): Book concentrating on the general analogy between "the principles of divine government, as set forth by the biblical revelation, those observable in the course of nature...leading to the conclusion that there is on Author of both."

So from here on are we writing from the grave?

Felt compelled to look up date of poem 1915...Addressing the young generation in the face of WW1? If not, who are the "sons and daughters?"

Seems a shift away from a submissive role where her thoughts remain imprisoned; her feelings and thoughts not self scrutinized or filtered -- they "must" come out.

Here, let me roll my duties as a quack doc and a sorry-ass husband into one, that way I can dismiss your feelings and symptoms all in the same breath.

Clues us in straight away that even perfectly reasonable curiosities on the part of the narrator are regularly dismissed and belittled by our "practical in the extreme" oppressor, Dr. John.

Confused as to the word choice in "gifted." If second-sight is in fact a blessing, how are we to reconcile that with the strife that is "twoness:" "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body..."

Right away we get the feeling of separation and perhaps isolation; seems an apt lead in to "two-ness," and "double consciousness."

Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), was an American sculptor who most embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance. He sculpted monuments commemorating heroes of the Civil War, many of which still stand.

A totally universal concept -- how to reconcile the new with the old; the more that we're exposed to the more it must be done.

Pavilion used for the Exposition Universelle (1889) and later used for the Great Exposition of 1900. Made of iron, steel, and glass, it was the largest vaulted building to have been built at the time.

Image of gutted carcass; correlative repetitions similar to "they Lion."

Why capitalized? Is there a hidden reference here?

Nonetheless, speaks to speaker's angst and attitude.

Plays with three colors throughout this stanza -- beige, black, and graphite. Burlap and the wooden dollies are sandy/beige. The beans, tar, and gasoline are black. And finally, the bearings (though not used as a noun here), slate bread, and the drive shafts are a slate-y graphite. Cataloging reminiscent of Whitman.

Swine considered unholy.