Basking Shark

Question 1

what is the poem about?

Answer 1

This poem compares the evolutionary paths of basking sharks and humans. Still, MacCaig’s surprise encounter with a creature of that size would be unnerving, particularly as it was close enough to touch the oars of his small boat
This encounter sparked in him a reflection on the comparative paths of evolution differing species took. Basking sharks on the one hand, relatively unchanged for millions of years, and humans on the other, vastly changed since the days when marine life first crawled ashore and adapted to a life on land.

Question 2

Form and structure

Answer 2

This poem is set out in five stanzas, each of three lines, and each line being end-rhymed with the others in the stanza. The meter of the poem is also fairly regular - the first two lines of each stanza have five stressed syllables, while the final one has four.
- The effect of the final shorter stressed line is to create a sense of fitting closure to the stanza.
- This tight regularity of form is quite unusual in MacCaig’s poetry. He is often quite free in stanza length, line length, and meter, and rhyming may or may not be present.
In this poem the tightness of structure serves to encapsulate the uniqueness of the experience.
- The regularity of rhythm and rhyme matches the rhythmic quality of the rise and fall of the sea itself, and likewise the steady pulling of the oars.
The subject of the poem is never mentioned in the body of the poem itself. We can only infer from the title what the poet’s small boat collided with that day.

Question 3

To stub an oar on a rock…To have it rise.

Answer 3

The poem begins with an unusual sentence structure - two infinitive clauses. The effect is to create a tension and suspense until the meaning is completed by the poet saying this is a thing that happened once “(too often) to him.”

Question 4

‘slounge’

Answer 4

The use of rock suggests the hardness and immovability of the object met. The neologism (new word) slounge seems to be an amalgamation of ‘slouch’ and ‘lounge’, and conveys the slow, lazy, ponderous movement of the surfacing creature it describes.

Question 5

“(too often)”

Answer 5

The alarm caused in the poet is neatly shown with the humorous parenthetical aside (too often) implying this is not an encounter he wishes to repeat. The slow, steady rhythm of these three lines is perfectly suited to the gradual surfacing movement of the huge shark.

Question 6

“But too often” and “I count as gain.”

Answer 6

“But too often”not in the opening line of stanza two. It seems to contradict what he has just said.
He implies that, on reflection, while this was a frightening experience, it was one he found ultimately worthwhile and enriching. We can also see this in the expression. “I count as gain.” He concentrates on the specific reasons he feels the encounter was beneficial in the remainder of the poem.

Question 7

” met “

Answer 7

to describe this event, he conveys almost a sense of reciprocity and fraternity between humans and animals. It is typical of MacCaig never to assume human superiority in describing encounters with the world of nature.

Question 8

“a sea tin-tacked with rain”

Answer 8

The alliterative metaphor a sea tin-tacked with rain captures with exact observation the nature of the rain - hard, relatively sparse droplets patterning the smooth surface with neat round imprints.
The alliteration of the hard consonant ‘t’ helps to replicate the metallic sound of the rain hitting the boat.

Question 9

“roomsized monster”

“monster and matchbox”

Answer 9

Alliteration and metaphor continue in rich vein in the final line with roomsized monster and matchbox brain.
The 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.

Question 10

“roomsized monster”

Answer 10

There is clever use of long and short vowels in this final line too - the long vowels in roomsized monster appropriately extend and elongate the expression to reinforce the size of the shark in contrast to the short, clipped vowels of matchbox brain.

Question 11

“He displaced more than water”

Answer 11

Metaphor.
This stanza marks a switch from observational to reflective mode. The short opening sentence He displaced more than water introduces the idea of the poet being metaphorically displaced.

Question 12

“He shoggled me/Centuries back”

Answer 12

“He shoggled me/Centuries back in time.”

This creature, a throwback to prehistoric times, creates in the imagination of the poet a glimpse of the early evolutionary stage of the emergence of land creatures from our common ancestors, marine life.

Question 13

“shoggled” and “decadent townee”

Answer 13

Immediately his tone becomes self-deprecatory with the use of the colloquial verb shoggled to describe how he is shifted. The tone continues as he describes himself as a decadent townee.

Question 14

“decadent”

Answer 14

word choice
The use of “decadent” in this context 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.

Question 15

“shook on a wrong branch”

Answer 15

The next line, which depicts how the speaker was shook on a wrong branch of the family tree conveys how he is both literally and metaphorically shaken by this experience.
He is reminded that this shark too is part of our own family tree and is inextricably linked to us in much the same way as any other ancestor.

Question 16

“wrong branch” and “monster”

Answer 16

The expression wrong branch is slightly ambiguous and could be interpreted in two ways.
Firstly because of our inherent sense of intellectual superiority over this creature we are unwilling to recognise we are in any way related.
Secondly, it is in fact humans who have gone wrong in their evolutionary path - it is humankind, not the shark which is the aberration, the monster.

Question 17

“swish”

Answer 17

onomatopoeic
“swish” of the water also alludes to the idea of displacement in the previous stanza. While initially the dirt would muddy the water and make it dark, opaque, and impossible to see through, eventually, once settled, it would be clearer. Effectively, this image prepares us for the conclusion of the poem as the speaker is about to reveal what is now clear to him following this encounter.

Question 18

“dirt” and “slime”

Answer 18

Word Choice

• The “dirt” in this case is the murky thought of how humans evolved into what they now are.
• The idea of “dirt” in our origins continues with the choice of the word “slime” - the primeval slime from which we and all other living organisms were created. This links once more the evolution of humanity with that of the shark.
• In his mind’s eye MacCaig has a surreal image of himself crawling out of this slime and returning to the initial, fundamental beginnings of human existence.

Question 19

“emerging” and “everything”

Answer 19

• The word emerging in the final line of this stanza reinforces this new, almost epiphanic sense of clarity associated with coming out of the dark into light.
• The word everything again reinforces our similarity with every other species at the start of this process.

Question 20

“so, who’s the monster?”

Answer 20

So who’s the monster?
By this stage it seems clear that the poet’s initial, dismissive response to the shark as a brainless, inferior creature has been reversed.
The tail of a basking shark as it swims away
“The tall fin slid away and then the tail”
This magnificent, awesome creature is monstrous simply because of its relative size. In the metaphorical sense it is clear the speaker now considers humanity to be the true monster.

Question 21

“grew pale/For twenty seconds”

Answer 21

Enjambment.
We are told how he “grew pale/For twenty seconds” as the huge fish itself glides away. The sheer size of the creature is conveyed by a number of techniques.
There is the mention of twenty seconds being the time the shark takes to pass him by, and the repetition of sail after sail, referring to its fin and tail above the water. The metaphor comparing fin and tail to sails gives us the impression of vast surface areas and the shape is also nicely evoked.

Question 22

“sail, tall, slid away” and “tail”

Answer 22

There is a sequence of long vowels in sail, tall, slid away and finally tail - all of these effectively combine to suggest the gradual exit of this vast animal.

Question 23

“displaced”

Answer 23

The speaker’s view of the creature has also been displaced at the end of the poem.

• No longer is it the clumsy, bulky creature of the opening lines but something graceful and elegant.
• This reinforces the change in the speaker - just as he now has a different view of himself, so too his opinion about the shark has been altered.

Question 24

“so who’s the monster?”

Answer 24

The unanswered question at the end of this poem is typical of what is often described as MacCaig’s metaphysical approach. His hair-raisingly close encounter with this monster of the deep has raised profound philosophical questions about our ethics and our place in the natural world.
MacCaig avoids the temptation to conclude this meditation with an easy or glib answer, instead inviting his reader to draw their own conclusions.

Question 25

Themes

Answer 25

Evolution

Nature and connection to nature

Question 26

Evolution 1

Answer 26

The central theme that emerges during this poem deals with our accepted ideas about the process of evolution and our own place in it. The encounter with this enormous, almost primeval beast at the opening of the poem acts as a catalyst to consider the relationship between this creature and humans, and the comparative paths such differing species took.

Question 27

Evolution 2

Answer 27

On one hand, basking sharks, have remained relatively unchanged for millions of years. On the other, humans have vastly changed since the days when marine life first crawled ashore and adapted to a life on land.
Through the reflection of the speaker, we are reminded that we have much more in common with the shark than we may initially believe. By rewinding time back to the origins of evolution itself he creates a direct link between it and us.

Question 28

Evolution 3

Answer 28

In doing so, he forces us to revise our understanding of exactly what we mean when we use the term monster. He suggests it is humanity, and not creatures like the shark, who are capable of true monstrosity.