In his book These Days of Large Things: the Culture of Size in America, 1865-1930, Michael Tavel Clarke suggests this section is intentionally modeled after the song “What Do You Do Sunday, Mary?” from the popular 1923 musical Poppy.
Line 3: “Keep smiling… away” – suggests Mary’s boss makes sexual advances towards her which she gently rejects (Clarke 172).
Line 5: “seven – eleven”- important numbers when playing the dice game craps (See line 20).
Line 7: “blue-eyed Mary”- virginal office worker
“claret”- A name originally given (like French vin clairet) to wines of yellowish or light red colour, as distinguished alike from ‘red wine’ and ‘white wine’; the contrast with the former ceased about 1600, and it was apparently then used for red wines generally, in which sense it is still, or was recently (OED).
Line 9: “carillon”- An air or melody played on the bells (OED).
Line 12: “Spring”- Street in New York City.
“Prince Street“- Another street in New York City.
“high wheat tower”- Possible varation on Rapunzel’s tower, see following note.
Line 16: “let down… hair”- reference to the children’s fairy tale about Rapunzel, a girl trapped in a high tower. This phrase might suggest Mary’s boss makes sexual advances towards her (Clarke 172).
Line 18: “cornices”- An ornamental moulding, usually of plaster, running round the wall of a room or other part of the interior of a building, immediately below the ceiling; the uppermost moulding of a piece of wainscoting; a picture-moulding, or the like; also, the ornamental projection within which curtains are hung (OED).
Line 20: “crap-shooting” – A game of chance played with dice; to shoot craps: to play at this game (OED).
Line 21: “peonies“- Perennial plant with large flowers.
Line 22: “forget-me-nots” – Common name for the plant Myosotis.
“Bleecker“- A street in New York City.
Line 23:”nickel dime tower”- reference to the Woolworth Building, commonly called a five and dime store; the Woolworth Building in New York City was the tallest in the world from 1913 to 1930 (skyscraper.org).
"Brooklyn Bridge and Woolworth Building," Irving Underhill, (1921). Courtesy of The New York Public Library.