I have to admit, I still do not feel 100% comfortable with this poem.  With that said, I will take a shot at the question posed for this blog assignment.  To me, the quotations create tension and anxiety in the poem.  The most obvious point are the lines that say "Hurry up it's time".  These lines seem to interupt the activity taking place in the poem and so gives the reader a sense of being rushed on to the next thing or being pulled away from their present focus.  The effect of this can be unsettling.  The exchange between the narrator and his wife also cause a great deal of tension.  The reader gets the sense of something just not being right.  The way the wife keeps asking if her husband is thinking anything, if he feels anything gives the reader a picture of a man who is totally broken down and disconnected from the world around him.  This is a disturbing thing to think of.  What came to mind for me was horror movies where a victim is begging for the killer to have mercy on them but the killer is stuck in his own monolouge and pushes on seemingly oblivious to what the other person is saying or feeling.  The only thing they are aware of is the thoughts in their own head and the words coming out of their own mouths. Clearly, this whole conversation in the poem left me feeling very unsettled.