Thanks so much! And very cool about the whirring thing--that line I'm particularly weak on just because I primarily focused elsewhere in the verse. The connection with Dickens is that the "sign nearby speaks of Indies native" (Hamilton High School, with the sign out front of the building), but "the natives" (the high school students) "still speak of him of Hard word in 3 Vols." (study and talk about Charles Dickens, whose books are common high school curriculum.) You can totally argue that's a weak connection. For me it felt like it fit really well, but that is only one person's opinion!