Basking Shark Flashcards
What are the main themes of Basking Shark?
Our place in humanity.
Isolation.
S1 - “to stub… to have”
2 infinitives.
Creates tension and suspense - don’t know what is happening/it is until meaning is completed.
S1 - “slounge”
Word choice.
Neologism of slouch and lounge.
Conveys slow, surfacing movement of creature.
S1 - “have”
Word choice.
Shark is in charge of meeting, carrying out actions and poet has no choice of what’s going on.
S1 - “(too often)”
Implies that it’s not an encounter he wishes to repeat.
S2 - “I count as gain”
Worthwhile and enriching.
Made poet rethink his attitude towards humanity.
S2- “roomsized monster with a matchbox brain”
Contrast and metaphor - emphasises sheer bulk and size of shark.
Tiny brain, very little intelligence - humans are not as big and impressive but have bigger brains.
S2 - “met”
Word choice.
Conveys a sense of equality.
S3 - “he displaced more than water”
Shark has “displaced” poet’s thoughts.
Shark has moved and upset both the poet and the water.
Sighting of the shark has prompted poet to think about our origins as humans.
S3 - “decadent townee”
No worthwhile purpose to life and only living for luxury and enjoyment.
S3 - “shook”
Word choice.
Onomatopoeia.
Reminds us he is both literally and metaphorically shaken by the experience.
S3 - “family tree”
Metaphor.
MacCaig reminding us shark is part of family tree because we are all related to all of nature in process of evolution.
S4 - “when it settles, a spring”
Analogy made between stirring up dirt in a spring then water being all the clearer.
Suggests the same with our thoughts - stir them up from time to time and they become clearer.
S4 - “emerging from the slime of everything”
Image of himself crawling out of slime and returning to the beginnings of human existence.
S4 - “emerging”
Word choice.
Re-enforces new sense of clarity - coming out of dark into light.
