|
Green
Green is the color of emerging life as in spring green. But this poem
is about the beauty of things that have decayed. The poem ironically
invokes this spring life in order to recall and undercut it with a "not,
exactly." Hence the line participates in the poem's tension between
what is ruined and what endures. Springtime is over for this crab, which
is no longer green but still capable of recalling its beauty. The word
also participates in the poem's evocation of colors
(opens in a new window - just close the window to return to this
page).
Bronze
A metal alloy that both connotes strength but perhaps also something
has come up short--bronze is not the gold. The image connect both to
the poems interest in colors and to strength
(opens in a new window - just close the window to return to this page)
and vulnerability.
Patinated
Patinated means developing a patina. A patina is the green film that
copper and copper alloys (such as bronze) develop with age. The word
has ambiguous connations. It is asscoiated with decay or corrosion,
but having a patina can also connote an enrichment by age. See the chain
of associations around what is ruined and what endures.
Fantastic
An interesting word. We usually use "fantastic" to mean great (like
a great window cleaner). We continue to hear that sense of the word
when we read it in the poem, but the dominant sense of "fantastic" in
this line is strange or unworldly (as in "literature of the fantastic"),
a now less frequently used sense of the word. So the greatness of the
crab is undercut by a sense of its oddness. Another instance of the
chain of associations around strength
(opens in a new window - just close window to return to this page) and
vulnerability (compare oddly muscular).
Gesture
Gesture literally means movement. The crab is strong; its foreclaws
move with "menace and power." But gesture also has a strong connotation
of incompletion or merely symbolic action. "That was a nice gesture,
but it didn't solve the problem." Hence the word both asserts the strength
of the crab and undercuts this assertion. See strength
(opens in a new window - just close window to return to this page) and
vulnerability.
Gobble
The connotations of this word make the crab's fate especially ignominious.
To "gobble" suggests to eat rapidly and inelegantly. The crab is not
only eaten, but eaten with no respect. After building up the crab's
strength through the metaphors "works of armament" and "crowned," "gobbled
emphasizes the crab's vulnerability.
Chamber
"Chamber," a metaphor for the center of the crab, can refer to a large,
grand room, but here this meaning is undercut both by the relative smallness
of the crab and by an alternative association of the word with the chambers
of the heart. The word thus glances at the possible majesty of the crab,
but also recalls its biological vulnerability. See strength
(opens in a new window - just close window to return to this page) and
vulnerability.
Firmament
The word means "sky," but connotes a heavenly or spiritual sky, rather
than a simply natural one (thus the word today is generally used in
elevated, poetic contexts; one never just says "it's a sunny firmament
outside). Additionally, the word etymologically derives from Latin word
for something that strengthens or supports, and we can still hear this
origin in the "firm" of "firmament."
The word implies too that there is something "firm" in our lives, a
redemptive heaven, though here this heaven may be less a religious one
than a heaven of beauty, of nature infused with religious awe. Particularly
lovely in this regard is the metaphor that the dead crab has breathed
under "summer's firmament." The crab is ruined, but the sky he lives
under endures. For so too does the speaker of the poem, who observes
this crab, breath under the summer's firmament in the act of finding
the crab (assuming it's summer and the speaker is on a beach walk).
|
