H English Basking Shark quotes

Basking Shark - Title

A basking shark is very large but not actually threatening/dangerous, yet still can appear so and like most sharks is widely viewed as monstrous and with fear

Stanza 1 quotes

* ‘to stub an oar on a rock… To have it rise’
* ‘once (too often)’
* ‘where none should be’
* ‘rise with a slounge’

‘to stub an oar on a rock… To have it rise’

* Infinitive clauses of ‘to’ create a tension and suspense until the meaning is completed by the poet saying this is something that happened ‘once (too often)’ to him

‘stub’

* WC
* Connotations of pain, frustration, unexpected, discomfort. Therefore, negative associations with experience

‘rock’ WC metaphor

Sturdy, immovable, grey in colour, obstacle, only harmful when disturbed/interfered with, no intent for violence

‘where none should be’

* WC ‘none’
* Opening tension increases
* Far from land/civilisation. Sense of discomfort, unsettled

‘rise with a slounge’

* WC ‘rise’ and ‘slounge’
* Large, seemingly threatening, ominous and looming, makes him feel small, fearful and threatened
* Tension increasing
* ‘slounge’ WC
* An amalgamation of ‘slouch’ and ‘lounge’ conveying size and speed, dry humour in fear

‘once (too often)’

* Parenthesis
* Humorous parenthetical aside
* Implies this is not an encounter he wishes to repeat
* Wry humour, informal, light-hearted

Stanza 2 quotes

* ‘But not too often’
* ‘though enough’
* ‘I count as gain’
* ‘met’
* ‘sea tin-tacked with rain’
* ‘roomsized monster’ and ‘matchbox brain’

‘But not too often’

* Change in tone
* Both echoes contradicts last line
* Contrast implies whilst he would not like to relive the moment again, he is glad it happened, and upon reflection whilst it was a frightening experience, it was one ultimately worthwhile

‘though enough’

Reaffirming his first point, saying whilst it was important and useful he should not like to encounter such an experience again

‘I count as gain’

Positive, benefitted from the experience, learnt something despite discomfort sense of priviledge

‘met’

* WC
* Sees as an equal, cordiality, sense of mutual respect
* Conveys almost a sense of reciprocity and fraternity between humans and animals

‘sea tin-tacked with rain’

* Metaphor, onomatopoeic, alliteration
* Placed in the speaker’s senses with sound of rain on sea and boat. The alliteration of the hard consonant ‘t’ helps to replicate sparse droplets patterning the smooth surface with neat round imprints

‘roomsized monster’ and ‘matchbox brain’

* Alliteration and metaphor, juxtaposition
* Contrast and incongruity of the size of the shark’s enormous body compared with its tiny brain is elegantly portrayed here. The linking alliterative consonant ‘m’ serves to further emphasise the comparison
* use of long & short vowels. Long vowels in ‘roomsized monster’ extend & elongate the expression to reinforce the size of the shark in contrast to the short, clipped vowels of ‘matchbox brain’

Stanza 3 quotes

* ‘He displaced more than water’
* ‘He shoggled me’
* ‘Centuries back’
* ‘this decadent townee’
* ‘shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.’
* ‘wrong branch’

‘He displaced more than water.’

Narrator has been moved, emotionally touched, changed perspective from shocking experience

‘He shoggled me’

* WC ‘shoggled’
* Tone becomes ‘self-deprecatory’ with the use of the colloquial verb ‘shoggled’
* Light-hearted playful tone, undignified, demeaning of himself in the face of power of nature

‘Centuries back’

This creature creates in the imagination of the poet a glimpse of the early evolutionary stages of animals and marine life

‘this decadent townee’

* Derisive towards himself
* Suggests that 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 on a wrong branch of his family tree’

* Metaphor
* Metaphorically and physically shaken by the basking shark’s presence
* He is reminded how this shark too is part of our own family tree and is inextricably linked to us

‘wrong branch’

2 interpretations:


1. Our inherent sense of intellectual superiority over this creature makes us unwilling to recognise we are in any way related
2. It is in fact humans who have gone ‘wrong’ in their evolutionary path - it is humankind who are the ‘monster’ not the shark
* Humanity lost its roots/way

Stanza 4 quotes

* ‘Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring/Is all the clearer.’
* ‘I saw me’
* ‘fling’
* ‘Emerging from the slime of everything’

‘Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring/Is all the clearer.’

* Metaphor
* An analogy is made at the opening of this stanza between stirring up dirt in a spring and the water then being clearer, and the present situation the speaker finds himself in
* This may reflect an idea that to gain some clarity, clarity must first be lost

‘Swish’

* Onomatopoeia, WC
* Alludes to the idea of displacement in previous stanza

‘dirt’

in this case is the murky thought of humans evolved into what they now are

‘I saw me’

Not only reflective tone, but literal reflection, he is faced with himself and now considers his place/role/nature in humanity

‘fling’

* WC
* light-hearted word choice that is non-specific and carefree but illustrates the unexpected quick pace of the speaker’s revelation

‘Emerging from the slime of everything’ (‘Emerging’ WC)

* Realisation of equality with all other creatures. Link back to ‘rise’ o shark
* Reinforces new almost epiphanic sense of clarity associated with coming out of dark into light

‘Emerging from the __slime__ of everything’ (‘slime’ WC)

the primeval slime from which we and all other living organisms were created which you can’t differentiate or separate from each other

Stanza 5 quotes

* ‘So who’s the monster?’
* ‘pale’
* ‘sail after sail’
* ‘tall’, ‘sail’, ‘slid away’, ‘tail’
* ‘slid away’

‘So who’s the monster?’

* Opens stanza with the question the poem has been leading up to
* The poet’s initial dismissive response to the shark as a brainless, inferior creature has been reversed
* He now questions the role/nature of humans and sees the other perspective(s)

‘pale’

* WC
* Realisation of humanity’s flaws makes him feel scared/guilty/sick

‘sail after sail’

* Metaphor, sibilance
* Link back to humanity whilst referencing the sheer size of the shark with help from repetition to emphasise

‘tall’, ‘sail’, ‘slid away’, ‘tail’

Sequence of long vowels all combine effectively to suggest the gradual exit of this vast animal

‘slid away’

Slow escaping, gradual, leaves him to ponder. Echoes pace of realisation. Out of sight but not mind