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 and cultural production.