Basking Shark

• "slounge out of the sea"?

  • Word Choice

  “Slounge” - is a neologism which combines the words ‘slouch’ and ‘lounge’. These words have connotations of casual or lazy, which suggests the bulky shark is moving slowly and lacks elegance.
• "He shoggled me"?

  • Word Choice

  “Shoggled” is a colloquialism which has connotations of being shaken. This suggests that, not only is MacCaig’s boat rocked by the movement of the shark but also that his mind is troubled and lots of thoughts swirl in his mind.
• "Swish up the dirt"?

  • Word Choice

  “Swish” - has connotations of quick, swirling movement which suggests that MacCaig’s mind is full of different thoughts about evolution that he is struggling to make sense of during the encounter with the shark.
• "made me grow pale"?

  • Word Choice

  “Pale” - has connotations of ashen and drained of colour, which suggests MacCaig is shocked by his discovery. He is troubled by his realisation that humans are the destructive species on this planet, whereas the shark he encounters is not harmful.
• “Room-sized monster with a matchbox brain"?

  • Imagery

  shark -> monster

  brain -> matchbox

  Just as a monster is huge and scary, so MacCaig is suggesting his fear at this chance encounter with this giant animal. A superior tone is introduced by comparing the shark’s brain to a matchbox.

  Just as a matchbox is small and contains a tiny number of items, so the shark has limited intelligence and MacCaig feels that humans are much more intellectually evolved than this animal. A contrast is created between the size of the shark’s body and its brain. 
• “This decadent townee shook on a wrong branch”?

  • Imagery

  Humans -> decadent townee

  Just as decadent townees have congregated in cities and become consumers, so humans have evolved in such a way that we have moved away from our traditional roots, needing all sorts of luxuries in order to be happy. A critical tone is created through the imagery of “wrong branch” which alludes to the fact MacCaig thinks humans have made mistakes in their evolutionary journey.
• “Sail after sail, the tall fin slid away and then the tail”?

  • Imagery

  Shark -> Yacht

  Just as a yacht is elegant, expensive and glides through the water, so the shark is seen as valuable and graceful as it makes it way past MacCaig’s boat. This suggests MacCaig has a newfound respect for the animal which he previously dismissed as cumbersome and lacking intelligen
• “Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me”?

  • Parenthesis

  Is used to suggest the fear that MacCaig felt on encountering the shark. The parenthesis highlights that he would rather not have met the shark at all because it was such a terrifying experience.
• “But not too often - though enough. I count as gain”?

  • Reflective pause

  On reflection MacCaig realises that, although it was scary, he gained something valuable from the encounter with the shark through the placing of “gain” at the end of the line to highlight it using enjambment. The dash introduces a change of heart on the part of MacCaig when reflecting on the encounter.
• “So, who’s the monster?"?

  • Rhetorical Question

  Is used at the end of the poem to invite the reader to consider whether it is really the human race that are monstrous, not the shark. Whilst it may look big and scary, it is in fact harmless, whereas humans are dangerous and destructive, and have caused huge damage to the planet through their actions. The question provides a link back to the earlier dismissal of the shark on the part of MacCaig, that he is forced to reconsider.