Hotel room 12th floor

• "Ululating"


  It has connotations of a constant repetitive sound. Which suggests that the sounds of the emergency services can be heard all night, meaning they are in high demand.
• "racing" 


  It has connotations of extreme speed. This suggests that the emergency services are having to rush around the city trying to deal with the big amount of crime and violence happening.
• "coldwater"


  It has connotations of poverty and lacking basic services. This suggests that although there are beautiful and clean parts of New York many still struggle and have very little whilst living in not as nice places.
• "glazed" 


  It has connotations of pottery and sealing in a pattern. Which suggest that violence and crime in the city is a permanent stain and there will always be blood to be cleaned
• "a helicopter skirting like a damaged insect"


  helicopter is being compared to an insect. Just as an insect with a damaged wing would fly in circles so the helicopter is circling as it comes into land. However, it may also suggest that the speaker is critical of the scene, that the helicopter is a symbol of the capitalist landscape he sees from the hotel window and disapproves of. 
• “That jumbo sized dentist drill” 


  the Empire State Building is compared to a dentist’s drill. Just as a dentist drill is used to fix rotten teeth so the Empire State Building highlights the corrupting nature of capitalism. This suggests that the speaker feels there is something sinister about the building and that its creation has caused pain and distress to those living in poverty in the city who could have been helped by the money spent to build it.
• “But now midnight has come in from foreign places” 


  personification comparing midnight to an unwelcome intruder. Just as an unwelcome intruder arrives uninvited and could cause trouble, so midnight brings darkness that allows crime and violence in the city to escalate. This suggests midnight brings danger and makes the city unsafe. 
• “I lie in bed, between a radio and a television set, and hear…”


  the use of a parenthesis adds extra information about the modern technology in the hotel room. This is important as, despite it being there, it does not drown out the sirens of the emergency services that go on all night long, which in turn emphasises the extent of the violence and crime.
• “Broken bones, harsh screaming” 


  the use of synecdoche dehumanises the victims of crime as the emergency services are so busy they can only deal with the immediate problems they encounter rather than taking time to see the victim as a whole person who may be mentally scarred from the experience as well as physically hurt.
• “The frontier is never/ somewhere else.” 


  the use of enjambment highlights the word choice of “never”, which helps to emphasise that the idea of permanence, that this is something that cannot be solved and creates a bleak tone at the end of the poem.