Basking Shark Annotations

Question 1

to stub an oar

Answer 1

infinitive verbs

captures attention

Question 2

on a rock

Answer 2

metaphor

comparing the shark to a rock - bulky/solid without feelings or intelligence

Question 3

to have

Answer 3

infinitive verbs

captures attention

Question 4

it rise

Answer 4

shark that is in charge

Question 5

slounge

Answer 5

onomatopoeia

noise of waves, clumsy movement

Question 6

once (too often)

Answer 6

although the poet is frightened, he tries to inject humour to make light on the situation

Question 7

• (second stana)

Answer 7

sentence structure

indicates no rush, while it is frightening at first, he now thinks experience is worthwhile

Question 8

i count as gian

Answer 8

emphasises experience is worthwhile - explains reasons why in the rest of the poem

Question 9

that once i met

Answer 9

experience is now not shocking

Question 10

on a sea tin-tacked with rain

Answer 10

visual/ aural imagery

can see and her the rain on the sea

Question 11

roomsized monster

Answer 11

word choice

room sized - emphasises size of the mammal

monster - low down on evolutionary scale

Question 12

matchbox brain

Answer 12

word choice

basic mammal - large mammal with small brain - like a dinosaur. opposite to us

Question 13

all of second stanza

Answer 13

There is clever use of long and short vowels in this final line too; the long vowels in room size monster appropriately extend and elongate the expression to reinforce the size of the shark in contrast to the short, clipped vowels of matchbox brain

Question 14

he displaced more than water

Answer 14

idea of shark making him rethink his life and man’s position in it

Question 15

shoggled

Answer 15

shark in control again - shark moving him. self-deprecating use of colloquial words

Question 16

centuries back

Answer 16

enjambment

draws attention to the word. shows he is thinking back to prehistoric times

Question 17

decadent townee

Answer 17

word choice

Decadent townee – moved far away from his origins

Decadent – he has lost a sense of purpose in his life and become too immersed in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure

Question 18

shook on a wrong branch of his family tree

Answer 18

He Is reminded that this shark too is part of our family tree and is inextricably linked to us in much the same way as any other ancestor

Question 19

swish up the dirt

Answer 19

onomatopoeia

The onomatopoeic swish of the water also alludes to the idea of displacement in the previous stanza

The dirt in this case is the murky thought of how humans evolved into what they now are. The idea of dirt in out origins continues with the choice of the word slime

Question 20

emerging from the slime of everything

Answer 20

Growing up from prehistoric times. The word emerging in the final line of this stanza reinforces this new, almost epiphanic sense of clarity associated with coming out of the dark into light

He primeval slime from which we and all other living organisms were created, linking the evolution of humanity once more with that of the shark

Question 21

so who’s the monster?

Answer 21

Not so confident as to who the superior being is
This magnificent, awesome creature is monstrous simply because of its relative size, but in the metaphorical sense it is clear the speaker now considers humanity to be the true monster

Question 22

for twenty seconds

Answer 22

Doesn’t think about it for long – emphasises how man is the monster

Question 23

sail after sail, the tall fin slid away

Answer 23

Shark is an elegant being – contrast to at the start of the poem