basking shark

Question 1

To stub

To have

Answer 1

Opens with an infinitive

• dramatic opening
• blunt opening

Question 2

A rock

Answer 2

Hard, solid, rigid, unnatural

Question 3

Slounge

Answer 3

Neologism
Onamatepia
- sense of immediacy
Sibilance - reflects water

Question 4

(too often)

Answer 4

Parenthesis

Didn’t like it - negative

Question 5

Too often

Answer 5

Contradiction

- Suggests worthwhile experience

Question 6

• though enough

Answer 6

Punctuation fragments the sentence

Experience has left him confused about his feelings

Question 7

Tin- tacked with rain

Answer 7

Metaphor - shape of drops falling in the sea. Alliteration onomatopoeia reflects sound of rain

Question 8

That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain

Answer 8

Roomsized - big, large. Long vowel sound reflects this

Monster - prehistoric, dismissive of creature. Sees himself as superior

Alliteration adds to sense of disdain

Question 9

He displaced more than water. He shoggled me

Answer 9

Displaced - disturb, shift, upset

More - the speakers mind

Shoggled - shake

Question 10

Centuries back - this decadent townee

Answer 10

Centuries back - forces speaker to consider where humans + shark came from on evolutionary terms

Decadent - morale decay. Humanity is going bad

Question 11

Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree

Answer 11

Word choice, disturbing, forced speaker to consider superiority

Wrong branch - if you go back far enough we are connected to ‘the monster’ . Humanity has taken a wrong turn

Family tree - thoughts going back to distant past

Question 12

Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring

Answer 12

Analogy. After some time has passed his thoughts have settled and he understands things better than before

Sibilance - reflects the disturbance

Question 13

Is all the clearer. I saw me, in one fling

Answer 13

Is all the clearer - reflection. He sees things clearer now

Caesura, reflects his new moment of understanding

In one fling - vast amounts of time compressed

Question 14

Slime

Answer 14

Primordial slime- all living creatures connected. Word choice- negative- destroys the concept of humans being superior

Question 15

So who’s the monster?

Answer 15

Key idea in the poem

Rhetorical question - no answer given yet implications are clear - humans are monsters that are wrecking the planet. Epiphoric, sudden new understanding

Question 16

Grow pale

Answer 16

Physical response to this new realisation, shock worry

Question 17

For twenty seconds

Answer 17

Numerous addition he was easily able to get over his new concerns

Question 18

Sail after sail

Answer 18

Metaphor - fin and tail resemble sails of a ship. Returns to the present

Question 19

The tall fin slid away and then the tail

Answer 19

Assonce- conveys the size and grace of the creature as it moves

Question 20

Themes

Answer 20

Humans are monsters, humanities place in the history of the world, challenging the idea that humans are top of the hierarchy

Question 21

Structural points

Answer 21

Big idea comes at the end

Question 22

Form

Answer 22

3 lines each, regular line length, meter and rhyme

Question 23

Symbolic meaning

Answer 23

Real life encounter raises profound philosophical questions about humanity, suggests near admiration for the shark