Basking Shark

Question 1

To stub

Answer 1

• imagery
• suggests that boat’s oar has hit something solid,
  something that refuses to give a little

Question 2

a rock

Answer 2

• metaphor
• we are led to assume that the shark, like a rock, is bulky,
  solid, without feeling + perhaps without intelligent

Question 3

slounge

Answer 3

• onomatopoeia
• noise the shark makes when shark leaves water - not
  graceful

Question 4

But not too often - though enough

Answer 4

• initially puzzling, it seems to contradict with what he
  said in stanza 1 - change in poem
• the use of the dash indicates that he’s in no rush to
  meet the shark again

Question 5

I count as gain

Answer 5

• enjambement
• important experience to him, he now thinks it’s a
  positive encounter

Question 6

happened once

Answer 6

• WC of ‘once’ suggests
• the poet seems to be frightened by the encounter and
  doesn’t want it to happen again

Question 7

(too often)

Answer 7

• brackets
• indicate a slightly humorous aside
• he has not relished the encounter at all - the poet was
  scared but is trying to make light out of it now

Question 8

met

Answer 8

• WC
• element of shock has gone, meeting now sounds
  prearranged

Question 9

tin-tacked

Answer 9

• onomatopoeia

- water isn’t solid but sounds like it is piercing water

Question 10

roomsized monster

Answer 10

• metaphor

- emphasising the sheer size + bulk of the shark

Question 11

matchbox brain

Answer 11

• word choice of ‘matchbox’
• suggesting he has a small brain has little intelligence, is
  inferior
• contrasts with ‘roomsized monster’

Question 12

displaced

Answer 12

• WC
• the poet starts to realise he is closer to the shark on the
  ladder of evolution

Question 13

shoggled

Answer 13

• WC

- clumsy poet is moved fairly violently

Question 14

Centuries

Answer 14

• enjambement

- to emphasise how long evolution took for humans

Question 15

decadent townee

Answer 15

• Imagery
• someone with no-worthwhile purpose to their life + lives
  only for enjoyment

Question 16

wrong branch

Answer 16

• WC of ‘wrong’

- doesn’t want to admit

Question 17

family tree

Answer 17

• WC of ‘family’
• MacCaig suggests that the shark is also apart of our
  family tree

Question 18

Swish

Answer 18

• onomatopoeia

- noise of moving water, swirling of dirt + water

Question 19

settles, a spring

Is all the clearer.

Answer 19

• enjambement
• swirling stops, dirt settles - clearer to see, inspiring he
  see’s his place in evolution

Question 20

Emerging from the slime of everything

Answer 20

• metaphor

- darkness > light, the poet too has emerged

Question 21

So who’s the monster?

Answer 21

• rhetorical question

- showing poets thoughts have changed

Question 22

grow pale

Answer 22

• Imagery

- sudden realisation humans are monsters - horror

Question 23

twenty seconds

Answer 23

• WC of ‘seconds’

- momentary thought

Question 24

sail after sail

v link v

Answer 24

• alliteration

- it’s smooth

Question 25

Slid

^ link ^

Answer 25

• WC
• elegant, graceful movement
• contrasts with ‘slounge’ - this shows his perspective of
  nature has changed by the end of the poem