Lobsters

            The author Howard Nemerov uses a comparison between lobsters and humans in a very satirical way. One idea that caught my attention was how lobsters have many different colors. "Mud red, bruise purple and cadaver green...This is their camouflage at home." In my discussion we decided this was his attempt to show his audience that humans are all different colors and most of us tend to blend into our surroundings, not wanting to be seen or discovered.

 When I first read this poem, I thought it seemed very literal, but as I started to annotate and discuss it with other students I realized it was about much more than just lobsters. The more time I spent with this poem, I began to see the symbolic meaning. One main point the author talked about was death. He talks about how lobsters wait around in a glass tank, waiting for a human to pick them and take them home to eat. Throughout the poem, the main message was that we cannot escape death. This symbolic meaning made this piece of literature very dark, one without hope.