Like many other dimensions of everyday life, people's need to satisfy themselves with stuff derives from deep impulses and responds to both obvious and subtle images. Ultimately, it isn't the commodities people buy so much as the behaviors they exhibit that are worth critical examination. What better way, then, to understand this phenomenon than to look to poetry, where one finds not only observations on culture and expressions of literary craft but also discoveries of self. In this article, the author draws on poems by Marge Piercy ("Barbie Doll"), Richard Wilbur ("Playboy"), and Howard Nemerov ("Life Cycle of Common Man") to help young adults unpack social issues of consumption. (Contains 2 footnotes.)