Basking Shark

SQA Higher English 2022

Summary

The poet describes and reflects on his 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗸. It causes him to think about his position in the process of evolution and our relationship with nature.

Themes

❥ Nature
❥ Isolation
❥ Evolution of humanity
❥ Human condition
❥ Lack of communication

Characters

❥ Speaker
❥ Shark

Structure

❥ Rhyme scheme (AAA BBB AAA CCC DDD (tercet))
❥ 5 tercets each ending in a full stop
1. Describes the fright the poet got from the shark
2. The poet reflects on the experience
3. The poet reflects the process of evolution
4. The poet explains how indistinct humans were from other species at the beginning of the evolutionary process
5. The poet's opinion of the shark changes and he is unsure of his own superiority
❥ In each tercet, the first 2 lines have 5 stressed syllables while the 3rd line has 4 stressed syllables (this creates a sense of fitting closure to the stanza)
❥ Regular meter
❥ Rhythm matches the feeling of sea and oars
❥ The tightness of the structure encapsulates the uniqueness of the experience

'To stub'

❥ Unusal sentence structure immediately captures attention
❥ Infinitive form creates tension and suspense
❥ Sudden movement
❥ The boat's oar has hit on something solid, that refuses to give any way

'rock'

❥ Metaphor
❥ Compares the shark to a rock
❥ The shark is large and bulky
❥ Emphasises the shark has no feelings or intelligence
❥ The shark is a force to be reckoned with and immovable

'rise'

❥ Shark is carrying out the actions and in charge whereas the poet has no choice in what is happening to him (observer)

'slounge'

❥ Neologism (new word)
❥ Amalgamation of slouch and lounge
❥ Onomatopoeia (noise of the waves as the shark leaves the water)
❥ Suggests laziness, ponderousness yet slow and deliberate
❥ The shark is in charge of the environment while the poet is the intruder

'(too often)'

❥ Humorous tone (the poet was scared but is trying to make light of it now)
❥ Disconcerting (uneasy) for the speaker
❥ Poet seems to be frightened by the encounter
❥ He doesn't wish to repeat this encounter

'But not too often - though enough.'

❥ Change in thinking
❥ The poet has learnt from his experience
❥ '-' indicates there is no rush to meet the shark again
❥ The caesura creates a pause before reflection

'gain'

❥ The encounter was worthwhile and enriching

'met'

❥ Reciprocity and fraternity between humans and animals
❥ The element of shock has gone
❥ Sounds almost as if the meeting has been prearranged between equals
❥ The poet now appreciates and enjoys the encounter

'tin-tacked'

❥ Alliteration replicates the staccato nature of water droplets hitting water
❥ Exact observation (drawing pin)

'roomsized monster'

❥ Hyperbolic sense of bulk
❥ Monsters are low on the evolutionary scale, they are basic and underdeveloped (reminiscent of dinosaurs)

'matchbox brain'

❥ Size of the brain contrasts the size of the creature
❥ Insults the creature by suggesting how tiny the brain is
❥ As if the poet is superior

'displaced'

❥ The shark's movements have caused the water to move violently, shifting the poet and his boat from their original position
❥ The speaker has also been displaced mentally as his views on his position in the evolutionary process have started to shift
❥ Suggests the poet's discomfort at being forced to think that he might be nearer the shark on the ladder of evolution than he likes to acknowledge

'shoggled'

❥ Colloquial Scots word
❥ The shark jolted the poet from his own complacency
❥ Shark is in control of the situation
❥ Sounds clumsy, as if the poet is being moved around fairly violently in an ungainly movement
❥ Enjambment emphasis how long it took humans to evolve (now asking deeper questions and travelling back in his mind)

'decadent townee'

❥ Self-deprecatory tone
❥ Informal
❥ People choose to live in the town, away from nature
❥ In his decision to remove himself from the natural world to an urban setting, he has lost a sense of purpose in his life and become too immersed in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasures

'Shook'

❥ Literally and metaphorically shaken by the experience

'wrong branch'

❥ We are linked to the shark through common ancestry
❥ Because of our inherent sense of intellectual superiority over this creature, we are unwilling to recognise we are in any way related
❥ It is humans that are 'wrong' in their evolutionary path, not the shark
❥ Humans have become detrimental

'family tree'

❥ The poet reminds us that the shark is also part of our family tree
❥ We are related to all of nature in the process of evolution

'Swish'

❥ Onomatopoeic (suggests the noise of moving water and describes the swirling movement of water and dirt)
❥ Links to the 'displaced' water
❥ The 'dirt' is the murky thought of how humans evolved into what they are now

'settles, a spring / Is all the clearer'

❥ The swirling has stopped and we can see the spring of water more clearly from the dust having settled
❥ Suddenly, the poet sees his position in evolution much more clearly

'emerging'

❥ Rebirth
❥ Growth
❥ As well as the shark, the poet has also emerged
❥ Reinforces the new, almost epiphanic sense of clarity associated with coming out of the dark into light

'slime'

❥ Primeval slime
❥ Emphasises the basicness of our beginnings

'everything'

❥ Reflects back to the beginning of earth
❥ Reinforces our similarity with other animals
❥ The speaker is connected to every other creature on earth
❥ Shows how indistinct humans were from other species at the beginning of the evolutionary process

'So who's the monster?'

❥ Rhetoric question
❥ Human beings are monstrous, the shark is just large
❥ The poet is humbled and unsure of his own superiority (contrasts him insulting the shark at the start)
❥ Poet questions himself (is he a monster, an intelligent being who has failed to use that intelligence usefully?)
❥ As well as seeing the shark in a new light, he has also seen himself in a new light

'twenty seconds'

❥ The creature is so large it takes a long time to exit
❥ Failure to use his intelligence is further highlighted when we realise that the poet only thinks about the question he has asked for twenty seconds

'sail after sail [...] away and then the tail'

❥ Long vowel sounds combine to suggest gradual exit of the vast animal
❥ 'and then' shows how long it takes
❥ The metaphor comparing fin and tail to sails gives us the impression of the vast surface areas
❥ Graceful and elegant
❥ It is no longer a clumsy/bulky creature (change in the speaker, he now has a different view of himself and the shark)