How we cite our quotes: line
Quote #1
three days after Bastille Day (line 2)
You have to be a certain kind of person to casually drop a line about Bastille Day, a key date in the French revolution. Most Americans probably have never even heard of Bastille Day. The fact that the speaker's sense of time revolves around the French calendar tells us something very specific about him – he seems to be an "intellectual."
Quote #2
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don't know the people who will feed me (lines 4-6)
East Hampton is an extremely wealthy enclave on Long Island. The speaker isn't rich enough to have a house in East Hampton, but he's cool enough to get invited to stay there.
Quote #3
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days (lines 9-10)
The speaker adopts a tired, jaded tone toward the 1950s fad of Western literary journals claiming to "discover" African literature.
Quote #4
and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and (lines 20-21)
Wow, this guy is confident. He just "strolls into" the liquor store, like he owns the place, and is like, "I need some Strega," which is a fancy Italian liquor you've probably never heard of. (We certainly hadn't.) He oozes nonchalance and casual good taste.
Quote #5
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing (lines 28-29)
For most of the poem, the speaker seems hip and self-confident. But here at the end, he's suddenly completely powerless, and even his ability to breath is at the mercy of Billie Holiday's incredible performance.