Don’t you just love these long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour – but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands – and who knows what to do with it?
– Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Scene 5. Blanche’s romanticized description of rainy afternoons in New Orleans uses poetic language, emphasizing her educated background and social class. She is speaking here to a young man collecting money for a newspaper. In a beautiful metaphor she likens an hour to a piece of eternity dropping into your hand. The passage reflects the writer Williams’s own passion for New Orleans, which he regarded as his "spiritual home," to quote his own words.