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Muscular
Muscular suggests the crab's strength, but the word is undercut both
by the adjective "oddly" and by the crab's fate. The word participates
in the set of associations of strength and vulnerability.
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 (compare oddly muscular).
Scuttle
Scuttling is a wonderfully multilayered word in this poem. To "scuttle"
is to scurry, a sense of the word that accords with the awkwardness
and vulnerability of the crab. On the other other hand, to "scuttle"
can also mean to sink a ship by putting a hole in it. Since the crab's
claws are compared to "scuttling works of armament," this meaning is
also implied, and emphasizes the strength rather than weakness of the
crab. But since, as we discover, it is the crab who is scuttled--by
the gull--rather than doing the scuttling, we are finally drawn again
toward the crab's weakness.
Armament
A metaphor that compares the crabs claws to military weapons, particularly
the weapons used on a ship. The metaphor emphasizes the claws' strength,
but this strength is elsewhere undercut.
Crowned
Crowned, meaning "topped with," is an almost dead metaphor, but here
reactivated by the poem's assertions, though undercut, of the crab's
grandeur.
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.
Demitasse
A demitasse is a small cup, usually for coffee. In contrast to the preceding
metaphor "chamber," demitasse emphasizes the small size of the crab
(and also, that, like coffee, it is something to be consumed). Yet where
"chamber" begins with a sense of strength and is then undercut, "demitasse"
works in a somewhat opposite fashion. Its sense of smallness is modfied
by the grandness of the word. Demitasse suggests a world of luxury and
elegance; it is the kind of cup one might enjoy in the chamber of a
grand hotel. Hence the pairing of "chamber" and "demitasse" beautifully
preserves the poem's ambiguous representation of the crab as both great
and small.
"Chamber" and "demitasse" are not only opposite words, but each word
also carries within it an opposite sense that it is in turn opposite
to the opposite word's internally opposite sense. (A grand and elegant
effect through a couple small words!). The elegance of a demitasse cup--something
an artist in a grand hotel, or a cafe, might sip--also associates the
crab with art (opens in new
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production.
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