sad parade

Poets and social media: a parade of narcissistic self-promotion.

passing strange

The poem was an image parade.

aggregating grandeur

A parade, a pageant, a triumph, as the poem proceeded.

military parade

Why do all those regular stanzas remind me of a military parade?

the retinue and the slave

The prose writer attends the retinue that is language. As one enslaved, the poet lies prostrate before each passing word.