Stanza 1

The opening lines of “i was sitting in mcsorley’s” paint a vivid picture of the poem's backdrop, setting the stage for a thematic exploration of contrasting realms: the intimate interior versus the bustling exterior. While the literal juxtaposition lies between the bar's cozy confines and the city's sprawling chaos, a deeper introspection pits the world of inner reflection against the outer realm of perception, where self-contemplation meets the gaze outward upon others.

Stanza 2

With an artful contradiction, the speaker portrays the tavern as both "snug and evil," its "slobbering walls" a testament to this duality. The allure and aversion the speaker feels for this space are palpable. Cummings’s characteristic rebellion against standard grammar and syntax masterfully evoke a scene teeming with frenetic energy and grime, yet somehow inviting. Words like "slobbering," "filthily," "pompous," and "witless" vividly contribute to this portrayal.

Stanza 3

This stanza, the poem’s longest, weaves fragments of conversation into its tapestry of sensory details. Words like “Kiddo,” “Yep,” and “no sir” echo through the bar, reminiscent of the lively exchanges between patrons and barkeeps. It's a scene reminiscent of Robert Altman's films, capturing overlapping dialogues that breathe life into the setting. The mingling of sight, sound, and smell lends immediacy to the scene, highlighting the multitude of unfolding narratives within the bar’s walls. Even phrases like “a faint piddle-of-drops” lend an onomatopoeic touch, as the sound of the words imitates the depicted actions.

Stanza 4

In this segment, Cummings often breaks words at unexpected moments. The stanza begins with “steps,” completing “footsteps” from the prior stanza. This technique of run-on lines underscores the unbroken flow of the speaker’s perceptions, mirroring the ceaseless march of existence itself. The speaker, a sort of multi-sensory recorder, strings together thoughts and sensations as they emerge. The imagery here suggests an elderly man, an "old feller," having one too many and ordering “summore.”

Stanza 5

In stark contrast, this stanza stands as the most cohesive in the poem. The speaker turns inward, musing on his own state: "sitting in the din thinking drinking." Despite the seedy ambiance, he finds comfort, captured in the image of “the always retchings of a worthless lamp.” His reflection that “ale . . . / never lets you grow old” hints at the comforting, albeit deceiving, haze that alcohol casts over one’s thoughts.

Stanza 6

As the speaker contemplates the scene at McSorley’s, a vision of a “bald greenish foetal head” shatters his reverie. This peculiar figure, with a collar gently hanging from its substantial neck, might evoke a surreal blend of man and beast—perhaps a reflection of the bar’s debauched atmosphere and the loss of human dignity beneath alcohol's sway. Alternatively, it could depict a man and his dog, rendered impressionistically. Phrases like “sonorous muscle” showcase synesthesia, where visual imagery is described with auditory terms. As before, modifiers such as “soiling” and “unwashed” paint a vivid picture of the sordidness of the scene, from which the speaker remains detached, a mere observer or anthropologist in this disordered world.

Stanza 7

The speaker’s visions persist, as he grapples with an “instant of semilumionous nausea,” glimpsing a “nondescript genie of trunk” settling into a “ghost of a chair.” These apparitions suggest his inebriated state and serve as symbolic projections of his perceptions of humanity. Yet, these descriptions also evoke cubist techniques, where perceptions are fragmented and reimagined. Cummings’ literary cubism dissects words and reshapes them, crafting a novel expression of simultaneous experiences. Thus, the figures in this poem, though distinct—a man and a dog perhaps—are linguistically merged to explore the complexity of the speaker's perceptions.