Needful Food

     I thought the idea that the poem is a critique of American consumerism was very interesting. Nemerov describes lobsters as a "needful food," when they are clearly a luxury item. When he describes the lobsters as "philosophers" and "imperial" he paints a picture of a slow moving, but wise creature that seems out of place on the dinner table. Although he never directly says it, I take this poem to be a well concealed jab at the American consumer, as we very clearly don't need to consume lobster, and yet we do so anyways, because eating something that is difficult to obtain, and therefore expensive makes us feel good about ourselves. Or something like that.
     When I first read the poem, I took in only the most literal meaning. Lobsters live in a tank. Humans pick out a lobster. Humans eat a lobster. Lobsters are darkly colored, etc. Each time I read over the poem, the deeper I got into the deeper levels of meaning. I could be totally and completely wrong about the meaning of the poem, but part of the beauty of poetry is that there are multiple interpretations of the text, and the meaning may be different for each individual reader.