Image of the Buddha Preaching, Song, The Day Lady Died, Poem (3), Poem (4), Naphtha Summary

Image of the Buddha Preaching is an absurd hypothetical sermon, spoken by the Buddha in Germany. He insists throughout the poem that the Indian mystics and the German philosophers have much in common. His sermon largely consists, in the end, of excoriations for German studiousness, free trade, and an end to ideological violence.

In Song, O'Hara dissects the assertion that the city is dirty. He argues mischievously that an item or a place is only dirty if it looks so. We are not perturbed shaking a person's hand - though it may be dirty - or breathing air we know to be unclean.

In The Day Lady Died - "Lady" being Billie Holliday - the poet is preparing to...