it was already 1842, and one gets the feeling / that it was also very late at night
-- Speaker (Lines 7-8)

Importance: This line combines contemporary vernacular with a historical moment. This use of contrast will become a recurring motif throughout the poem. The context of the line suggests that the invention of the saxophone was a slow, laborious process filled with false starts and setbacks. The inventor notably finishes the instrument “late at night”, creating the cultural associations that will come to define it.

(who were up / waiting for the invention of jazz)
-- Speaker (Lines 15)

Importance: This is the poem’s only bracketed aside, which positions the line as set apart from the rest of the poem. It reads as if the speaker was directly addressing the reader, sharing with them an intimate secret. The line implies that although “jazz” as a concept hadn’t arrived yet, it was an inevitable evolution of music and its followers were...