basking shark (backup quotes) Flashcards
(15 cards)
To stub an oar on a rock on a rock where none should be
• Word choice - stub - connotations of a sudden jolt, almost painful or shocking.
• Metaphor - rock - similarities between shark and rock: huge, solid, unmoving, grey, not sentient.
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
• Repetition - to… - sense of tension as it delays us from getting to the point.
• Word choice - rise - connotations of slow, dignified movement.
• Word choice (neologism/new word) - slounge - combination of slow, slide, lunge and lounge giving connotations of the shark’s gentle but powerful movement.
• Alliteration (sibilance) - slounge/sea - emphasises this moment, perhaps also suggesting the sound made by the shark in the water.
Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me
• Parenthesis - (too often) - hints that the encounter was unpleasant in some way e.g. frightening.
• Tone - suggested by parenthesis - humorous. The encounter was scary, but the poet can joke about it now.
But not too often - though enough. I count as gain
• Dash followed by ‘though enough’ - reinforces the poet’s message that this was a scary encounter, but still one he’s glad to have experienced.
• Word choice - gain - connotations of profit, increase; suggests that this experience was beneficial to the poet.
That once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain
• Word choice - met - connotations of social event with another person, not usually used in relation to animals; suggests he views the shark as friendly/an equal.
• Metaphor - tin-tacked - similarity between tiny circles made on surface of the sea as the raindrops hit, and drawing-pins on a sheet of paper. Brings the scene to life as it is such a vivid memory for him.
• Alliteration/ onomatopoeia - tin-tacked - sound of the rain against the sea; again, makes the scene very vivid for us.
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain.
• Contrast (in size) - roomsized/ matchbox - suggests the huge body of the shark compared to its small, simple brain
• Metaphor - monster - similarity between huge, frightening shark and a monstrous character from e.g. a horror film.
• Alliteration - monster/matchbox - draws our eyes and ears towards this important comparison
• Tone - humorous comparison between the shark’s overall size and brain. It isn’t dangerous.
He displaced more than water. He shoggled me
• Word choice - he - until this point MacCaig has referred to the shark as ‘it’. Now he shows he has made a connection with the animal by referring to it as ‘he’.
• Word choice/metaphor - displaced - connotations of profound movement, usually referring to an object in water. His boat has been moved by the shark, but so has his opinion of so-called dangerous animals.
• Word choice (neologism/Scots) - shoggled - like shake/joggle/shoogle, connotations of roughly or vigorously move out of place.
• Contrast (humorous) - formal word ‘displaced’ contrasts with informal, funny-sounding ‘shoggled’, but they have similar meanings.
Centuries back - this decadent townee
• Enjambment - me/Centuries - highlights how personal this was to the poet (emphasis on ‘me’) as well as how huge this realisation was, spanning a huge amount of time in human history (emphasis on
‘Centuries’).
• Word choice - decadent - connotations of lack of morals, living only for luxuries and pleasure; suggests the poet feels extravagant and wasteful compared with the simple shark.
• Word choice - townee - connotations of a city-dweller, someone who can’t survive without modern conveniences; suggests the poet thinks of himself as out of place in this wild environment, even though that is humans’ natural home.
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.
• Metaphor - branch/tree - MacCaig suggests that evolution is like a family tree, but humans have
developed so far from their origins, unlike the shark which has barely changed over millennia.
Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring Is all the clearer.
Metaphor - stirring the water in a shallow river helps the dirt and debris to sink, which makes the water clearer after being full of particles. In a similar way, the shock that the poet has experienced has made him see the issue more clearly (people have come too far from their origins/humans are the most dangerous species).
I saw me, in one fling,
• Parenthesis - in one fling - highlights how suddenly the poet has imagined time turning back to the origins of life.
• Word choice- fling - connotations of being forcefully thrown; an informal word, like shoggled, thus creating humour.
Emerging from the slime of everything.
• Word choice - emerging - connotations of first appearance; back to the very origin of primitive life.
• Word choice - slime - negative connotations of primitive existence, shapeless and formless; again, this suggests the poet is thinking about the origins of life on Earth.
• Word choice - everything - suggests that all life forms came from the same origin. The poet and the shark have a shared origin, way back in time.
So who’s the monster? The thought made me grow pale
• Rhetorical question - makes the reader ponder this question, to which MacCaig suggests the answer is obvious: humans are the monsters.
• This is the moment of realisation.
• Word choice - pale - connotations of blood draining from someone’s face. Suggests the poet is disturbed/shocked/frightened by the answer to this answer.
• Tone - serious - in contrast to the earlier, more lighthearted stanzas
For twenty seconds while, sail after sail,
• Word choice - twenty seconds - this is a long time for a shark to disappear under the waves, again showing its vast size.
• Metaphor - sail - the poet compares the shark’s dorsal fin and tail to the sail of a ship: an image of elegance and beauty, and fits with the marine setting.
• Repetition in parenthesis - sail after sail - delays the ending, suggesting that the poet’s last moments with the shark seemed to last a long time, showing how profound and valuable this encounter was.
The tall fin slid away and then the tail.
• Alliteration - tall/tail - draws our eyes and ears to the focus on the shark’s body one last time.
• Word choice - slid - connotations of smooth, easy movement, suggesting once again that this creature is elegant and totally comfortable in its natural environment.
