Basking Shark annotations Flashcards
Basking Shark (title)
- Only time creature is named
- Connotations of danger, creature is actually harmless
To stub… To have
Infinitive clauses, create confusion/tension
rise with a slounge
Neologism shows slow movement
that happened once (too often) to me.
Alarm communicated by humorous aside
But not too often
Immediate contradiction - on reflection it was more worthwhile than frightening
That once I met
Implies reciprocity, takes no superiority over nature
tin-tacked
Onomatopoeia, repetition of ‘t’ replicates sound of rain on water
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain
- Alliteration of ‘m’ sounds comforting, no threat
- Elongated vowels vs short vowels show difference in sizes
- ‘matchbox’ highlights difference to humans
He shoggled me
- Neologism, literal movement and metaphorical movement of ideas
- ‘He’ humanises the shark
this decadent townee
Self-depricating, implies speaker is removed from nature (unlike shark)
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.
- ‘wrong’: human superiority, unwilling to admit they’re related (or humans have strayed too far from nature)
- ‘family’: human and shark are still family despite everything
Swish up
Onomatopoeia, adds to theme of displacement
a spring Is all the clearer.
Image prepares us for the poem’s conclusion
Emerging
Shows poet’s new clarity/understanding
slime of everything.
- Slime: humble, self-depricating, shows speaker and shark’s shared origins
- everything: emphasises clarity and shared origins with everything
So who’s the monster?
Rhetorical question, initial impression of brainless monster is flipped, being a monster is defined by actions and not physical scale
For twenty seconds
Emphasises shark’s scale (this is how long it takes for it to leave)
sail after sail
Compares shark to boat, luxurious yacht, presents shark as graceful
The tall fin
Long vowel suggests slow exit of vast animal
