The Building Blocks

Poetry is the part of English in which I fail to completely comprehend.  By analyzing the three poems in class, and along with the class discussions, I found it easier to find the literary and symbolic meanings.  If you glance through the poem "Lobsters" you would find that the author builds the poem with essential "building blocks" (such as literary elements: imagery, irony, descriptions etc.) that make the poem tie together it's relevant meaning.  Before the discussion, I didn't know that I was missing such an important "building block".  The question brought up was about the colors that the author used to describe the lobster's appearance.  What I didn't recognize was that the colors were not coinciding with the actual color of the lobster.  The colors were all shades of violet.  The violet was to represent blood and death.

Sooooo what did I learn?  How was I enlightened?  I realized the author not only focused on the "big" ideas, but they went as far as representing the theme - death, in the Lobster's description.  Now that I know this, it is easier to see that the poem is more about death then about the innocence of a Lobster.  The author’s simple word choice can build the theme and meaning to give the poem depth.  However, if you miss one of the building blocks you can miss a major part of the poem.