Don't take her to movies but to cemeteries
tell all about werewolf bathtubs and forked clarinets
then desire her and kiss her and all the preliminaries
The speaker amuses himself by imagining how he would take the typical, innocent girl next door and court her in a mixture of very traditional ("all the preliminaries") and very exotic ways. These lines appear right in the beginning of the poem and foreshadow the general sentiment. The speaker shows both a disdain as well as a craving for a traditional marriage. To mask these desires or justify them to himself, the speaker envisions ways of how he would subvert or twist traditions, yet always returns to this frame of reference. It is only in the last stanzas of the poem that the speaker begins to include less traditional forms of romantic relationships as possible for him.
And the priest! He looking at me if I masturbated
asking me Do you take this woman for your lawful wedded wife?
After following their traditional/untraditional courtship, the speaker envisions the wedding. The guests are predominantly comprised of her family and friends and the speaker's few guests stick out negatively. Even though this is his own fantasy, the speaker himself feels out of place, experiencing the judgmental looks of everyone around him. Even the priest officiating the wedding looks at him disapprovingly. The reactions of the people around him in his fantasy reveal what the speaker deems as acceptable according to traditional values.
Everybody knowing! I'd be almost inclined not to do anything!
Stay up all night! Stare that hotel clerk in the eye!
Screaming: I deny honeymoon! I deny honeymoon!
After the wedding, the speaker imagines the most cliche honeymoon he can think of. They visit Niagara Falls and he envisions dozens of couples around them, all there to do the same thing. This is the first time in the poem where the speaker begins to visibly panic and feel trapped. Everyone around him knows what they are there for (to have a romantic honeymoon) and this makes the speaker wanting to lash out.
Though he has so far amused himself with thoughts of how he would half-heartedly play along a traditional suburban courtship and felt like he was in control of most of the affair, this is the first time the speaker feels out of control. Even in his own fantasy, he feels the need to scream to get attention.
Interacting for the first time as a couple outside of their circle of friends and family, the speaker also resents being put into the same category as all those other traditional couples, revealing that he cares a lot about this facade being openly seen as exactly that.
