Read the full poem here.
Below are my thoughts and analysis on a first read of the poem. They might be all wrong but this is just my personal interpretation. I used the method outlined in How to Read a Book by Mortimer J Alder for this.
Conflict: This poem describes a tension between the author, Poe, and the current culture of society. He feels that his current age as lost or is losing it intellectuality for the gain of vanity and pleasure. He feels a stark difference between himself and what society would call an upstanding or ideal man. It is clear even before the last line of the poem that this was written as a personal attack on a specific man.
Now I will take small parts of the poem for some deeper analysis. You will find that as I do this, my stance on the poem changes. Any facts I present are from Wikipedia. My final thoughts are at the end of the analysis.
"O, Tempora! O, Mores!" - This was first spoken by Cicero against his political opponent Catiline. In Cicero's usage, he laments the current times and the customs with this phrase but then immediatly goes on to talk about how the senate consul do not react on evidence against Catiline. I think this is an attempt by Cicero to use the overall frustration with the Times and direct it at Catiline. The connection there seems kinda weak, I mean sure it could be a sign of the times but tbh isn't political nonsense a sign of all times in recorded human history lol? I think this is a very fitting title to the poem because Poe is doing the same thing here, he is using a general frustration with current culture to facilitate a direct attack on some guy. The poem starts with lamenting the times, but ends with a direct callout to Pitts.
"I like your Yankee words and Yankee ways" - Yankee refers to American, often times in a derogatory way. Obviously Poe hates the new American culture but like, he is also American? It is weird to use the derogatory if you are also an American. Maybe I do not understand the usage of this word but Poe using it like this further shows that he feels like a total outsider in his own society.
Heraditus - From what I can gather from this guy's Wikipedia page, he seems like he was also in the "these days folks just aren't intellectual anymore smh" crowd. Anyways, Poe references Heraditus without any shred of self-awareness, I find it a little funny. Like obviously here is proof that people have been making this claim for a very long time, but rather than do any self reflection on the validity of his feelings he just glazes over that and continues his little diss track.
Democritus of Thrace - There is a painting from 1746 of him where he is all smiley and giggling. I think a big part of his philosophy is the pursuit of happiness and peace. He is quoted, "The hopes of the educated were better than the riches of the ignorant." I think here Poe miiiiiight be showing a little self awareness by saying, eh, maybe this is all stupid and doesn't matter, but he does not linger here.
JOB - Apparently this is most likely a misprint, and he meant to say Bob, as in Robert Pitts, an actual store clerk that existed contemporary to Poe and whom this poem is about. At this point I am like??? Why does Poe have beef with a store clerk like ok he is just some guy in retail doing his job relax bro.
"Instead of two sides, [ROB] has nearly eight, Each fit to furnish forth four hours debate." - This is a silly line, I did not understand it well but liked the alliteration and the rythym. After reading it a few times, I take it to mean that Bob might overcomplicate things in his head, mistaking confusion for thoughtfullness perhaps. Certainly Bob lacks any mental clarity.
Final Thoughts: After doing some analysis, this poem doesn't feel like a witty takedown anymore, to me it feels like the laments of a man who feels superior to others but deep down is just bitter and jealous. It's lowkey givign incel. He wants to be accecpted the way Pitts is, but since he is not for whatever reason, he uses "O, Tempora! O, Mores!" as a flimsy disguise for his digusting envy. Bleh.
Over all, I still like this poem, there is a lot to unpack and it is still quite witty, I just think the Poe is able to hide his not so great feelings under the facade of intellect really well. He is only human, and these are definetly some emotions I can relate to so I'm not trying to judge him too hard. There is a lot of emotion and rage behind his words and you can really feel it when reading aloud.