Lobsters

               These past few weeks we have been working on discussing poetry and prose more deeply than just the surface level literal meaning.  We have been taught to analyze a piece literally before examining connotation and tone in order to discover the underlying message.  While discussing the poem "Lobsters" By Howard Nemerov, someone in our class said something that changed how I think about it.  A question was posed that had to do with the author comparing lobsters to humans.  A girl answered, "The author isn't comparing lobsters to humans.  He is saying that humans are like lobsters."
               It was amazing how a comment so simple caused a lightbulb to go off in my mind.  It was like this obvious statement had opened up an entire new world of thought.  I realized that the author isn't discussing the similarities of lobsters and humans.  Upon first reading the poem, I thought of it as light, even whimsical.  "Lobsters are in a tank, dreaming, while similarly spacey, ditzy people walk around the store buying food," I was thinking.  After my epiphany, the poem took on much darker symbolic meaning.  Now I personally see the poem as the author's way of saying, "Like the lobsters in the tank, we go about our lives, stupid, unknowingly bound for death and destruction." 
               These discussions with our class have helped me realize how much time is needed to fully understand the symbolism in a piece of writing!