Summary
After getting a shoeshine, the speaker walks to a cafe to eat a hamburger and milkshake, calling attention the hot, muggy city streets. After lunch, the speaker buys a copy of New World Writing, a literary magazine, to read the latest work by poets in Ghana, a country located on the west coast of Africa. Then, the speaker goes to the bank, where Miss Stillwagon, the bank teller, doesn't report his account balance. After this, the speaker enters the Golden Griffin, a bookstore, where he purchases a book by the French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine for his friend Patsy. He mentions his edition contains drawings by Pierre Bonnard, a French painter. He considers selecting another book instead, such as Richmond Lattimore's translations of the Classical Greek poet Hesiod, a play by Brendan Behan, or a novel by Jean Genet, but ultimately settles on the Verlaine.
Analysis
Lines 7-19 primarily advance the action of the poem, in the most literal sense of the phrase. The speaker tells us what he does, and in the case of his visit to the Golden Griffin, details the thought process behind these actions. We learn that the speaker is well-read from the literary works he discusses, and we know that art and poetry particularly interest him, based on the drawings by Bonnard and his decision to read the work of poets on the other side of the world. At the end of line 19, when the speaker tells us he decided upon the Verlaine "after practically going to sleep with quandariness," we recognize that the speaker partly surrendered to the lull of midday. He goes through the motions, running the necessary errands, but with the exception of the impending dinner party, his day hasn't proved to be very remarkable.
By stating only the bare actions of the day, O'Hara sets the reader up for the shock at the end of the poem, when the speaker will learn of Billie Holiday's death. By establishing routine and normality, we understand that something about this day must be abnormally significant to warrant the poem's occasion, even if we don't know specifically what this event could be from the information the speaker provides us.
