Basking Shark Flashcards
Example of a rhetorical question
“Who’s the monster?”
lin 13
A quote that uses neologism
“To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea”
line 2
“He shoggled me centuries back”
line 7
What does macCaig mean when he says “he displaced more than water.”?
The use of a caesura cause us to stop and think just like the shark has caused MacCaig to change the he thinks. Inherit a new mindset.
What are the themes of basking shark?
Humanities connections with nature
Humanities place in evolution
Who’s the real threat?
What’s the rhyming scheme of Basking Shark?
AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE (Rhyming triplets)
What techniques does “that once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain” have?
line 5
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration (visual and sound)
Plosive sounds
What does MacCaig mean when he says “that room sized monster with a matchbox brain”
line 6
He uses a metaphor to emphasise the sheer size of the shark as well as how primitive it is.
What does MacCaig mean when he says “the slime of everything”
line 11-12
He’s talking about the base part of evolution, where everything came from.
What is MacCaig trying to convey at the end of Basking Shark?
To make people think that we’re not always in the right (we’re the true monsters).
Why does MacCaig use a metaphor to compare the shark to a rock?
To show that the shark is very tough, impact, and how slowly the shark moves.
What does MacCaig mean when he says “is a thing that happened once (to often) to me”
line 3
He uses an informal tone to reflect on when this experience happened and taking it forwards as a learning curve.
What structure do the stanzas have
They’re very uniformed (only three lines per stanza, with rhyming triplets.
What does MacCaig mean when he says “shook on the wrong branch of his family tree.”
line 9
He uses a metaphor for seeing himself as a relative of the shark through their ancestors.
What does MacCaig mean when he says “so who’s the monster?”
line 13
He uses a rhetorical question to start questioning the the true righteousness of humanity, questioning wether it’s really the sharks that are the monsters or if it’s the humans for hunting them.
What techniques does “I saw me in one fling, emerging from the slime of everything” have?
line 11-12
Onomatopoeia
Personal pronouns
