Basking Shark Flashcards
To stub an oar on a rock where non should be
Sets the scene clearly with simple language
Visual assonance, ‘o’, forces lone to be read slowly and thoughtfully
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
Repetition of ‘to stub’ and ‘to have’ - sense of scene being built creates curiosity
‘Slounge’ depicts the slow, lazy lounge of the vast shark as it rises in the sea
Speed suggests it is not attacking MacCaig
Is a thing that happen once (too often) to me
Parenthesis, humour - common idiom creates a playful and informal tone
Tale about to continue - creates more interest
Deliberately holds back full account
Slow steady rhythm mimics gradual surfacing movement
But not to often - though enough. I count as gain
Confiding, light hearted tone
Playing with semantics - reveals he is glad the encounter happened but would not like a repeat
Builds up readers curiosity
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain
Contrast, metaphor, hyperbole
Size of shark exaggerated
Sense of intimidation - patronising about sharks brain - later reveals shark is of much value as mankind
That once I met, on a sea tin tacked with rain
Metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia
Depicts sound of rain pouring onto water - visual, easy to imagine
Starts to ponder the significance of the strange meeting between man and fish
He displaced more than water
Ambiguity, double meaning
Shark doesn’t just move water and MacCaig’s boat - unsettles MacCaig mentally - thinks of his place of earth
He shoggles me / Centuries back
Words choice, enjambment
‘Shoggled’ suggests MacCaig is knocked off balance by the shark
Applies metaphorically to the way he feels he has time travelled back to prehistory
This decadent townee
Word choice, tone
Lost touch with world
‘Decadent’ - mankind is in s of-indulgent decay
Noun ‘townee’ - pejorative tone - mocks himself - urban man lost connection with ancient roots
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree
Metaphor - awkwardly expressed line mirrors awkward feeling of MacCaig
Interloper - humans left water to evolve - sharks remained, belong - humans don’t belong - on ‘wrong branch’
Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring/Is all the clearer
Metaphor - metaphorically suggests how, having been unnerved by this situation, he is now able to process his thoughts and come to a pellucid understanding
His minds has been swished up - see clearly now
Swirled water becomes clearer as disturbed sediment sinks to the bottom
I saw me, in one fling / Emerging from the slime of everything
Metaphor - MacCaig imagines himself ‘thrown’ into the past
Stands outside himself and visualises himself as a life form in the primordial period, crawling from the watery slime
Image draws on the word choice of movement used throughout the poem
So who’s the monster?
Rhetorical question - analysed the event - questions if he is any different from the shark - is man the real monster?
The that ugh made me grow pale / For twenty seconds while
Enjambment - flowing lines mirror flowing movement of the shark - slowly moves away
MacCaig gazes meditatively at disappearing fish
Sail after sail / The tall fin and then the tail
Repetition, assonance, metaphor
Punning joke - ‘tall tale’ - exaggerated/far fetched story told by fishermen - end of poem half teasing tone which the poem was stared with
Literal end of fish, structural end of poem
Metaphor ‘sail after sail’ - pertains to the sea when describing the sharks tail and fins being sails
