Norman MacCaig
The Scottish Text
Basking Shark
Poem 2
We are learning to:
 Identify and explain the main ideas and supporting details of a
text
 Apply knowledge and understanding of language to explain
meaning and effect, using appropriate critical terminology
Poet’s
Main
Idea
• This poem depicts the startling encounter MacCaig had with a
Basking Sea.
• Basking sharks are one of the largest species of the shark
family, in fact they are the second largest species of any fish,
reaching sizes in excess of ten metres and weighing several
tonnes.
• They are harmless filter feeders, having no true teeth, and as
such pose no real danger to humans. Still, a surprise close
encounter with a creature of that size would be unnerving,
particularly if close enough to touch the oars of a small boat,
as happened to MacCaig.
Basking Sharks in the UK
• Every year, holidaymakers flock to the
coastline in the hope of seeing these
enigmatic sharks for themselves.
• Reaching lengths of up to 12m, Basking
Sharks are the largest fish in British waters
and the second largest in the world after
the Whale Shark.
• One of only three plankton-feeding shark
species, these gentle giants re-appear in
our coastal waters each spring and
summer.
Theme of
poem
• This encounter sparked in him a reflection on the comparative paths
of evolution such 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.
• This train of thought leads to a disturbing question: who is the
monster? Is it the shark, literally monstrous in size and aspect to the
human; or is it the poet himself, representative of the human race
and all the dark, monstrous deeds of which our race is capable?
• The thought remains with the poet, unresolved, as the shark swims
off.
Structure
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.
 In this poem the tightness of structure serves to encapsulate
the uniqueness of the experience, and the regularity of rhythm
and rhyme matches the rhythmic quality of the rise and the 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, instead we infer from the title what the poet's
small boat collided with that day.
Stanza One
To stub an oar on a rock where none should be,
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me.
Stanza One
Infinitive verbs
Captures attention
Metaphor comparing the
shark to a rock –
bulky/solid without feeling
or intelligence
To stub an oar on a rock where none should be,
To have it rise with a slounge out of the sea
Is a thing that happened once (too often) to me.
Slounge – onomatopoeia –
noise of waves, clumsy
movement
Shark that it is in charge
Although the poet is
frightened he tries to inject
humour to make light of the
situation
Stanza Two
But not too often - though enough. I count as gain
That once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain,
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain.
Stanza Two
Met –
experience is
now not a
shock
Dash – indicates no rush.
While it is frightening at
first, he now thinks
experience is worthwhile
Emphasises experience is
worthwhile – explains
reasons why in rest of
poem
But not too often - though enough. I count as gain
That once I met, on a sea tin-tacked with rain,
That roomsized monster with a matchbox brain.
Roomsized –
emphasises size
Monster – low
down on
evolutionary
scale
Basic animal large animal with
small brain – like
a dinosaur.
Opposite to us
Visual/aural imagery
Can see and hear the rain
on the sea
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.
Stanza Three
He displaced more than water. He shoggled me
Centuries back - this decadent townee
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.
Stanza Three
Idea of shark making him
rethink his life and man’s
position in it.
Shark in control again –
shark moving him. Self
deprecating
Use of colloquial words.
He displaced more than water. He shoggled me
Centuries back - this decadent townee
Shook on a wrong branch of his family tree.
Enjambment –
Draws attention to
the words.
Shows he is
thinking back to
prehistoric times.
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.
Decadent townee –
Moved far away from his
origins
Decadent -- he has lost a
sense of purpose in his life
and become too immersed
in the pursuit of hedonistic
pleasures
Stanza Four
Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring
Is all the clearer. I saw me, in one fling,
Emerging from the slime of everything.
An analogy is made at the opening of this stanza between stirring up dirt in a
spring and the water then being all the clearer, and the present situation the
speaker finds himself in.
Stanza Four
The
onomatopoeic
swish of the
water also
alludes to the
idea of
displacement in
the previous
stanza.
Swish up the dirt and, when it settles, a spring
Is all the clearer. I saw me, in one fling,
Emerging from the slime of everything.
Growing up from
prehistoric times.
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,
he primeval slime
from which we and
all other living
organisms were
created, linking the
evolution of
humanity once
more with that of
the shark.
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
How the poet is connected
to every animal.
Stanza Five
So who's the monster? The thought made me grow pale
For twenty seconds while, sail after sail,
The tall fin slid away and then the tail.
Stanza Five
Not so confident as to who
the superior being is
This magnificent, awesome creature
is monstrous simply because of its
relative size, but in the metaphorical
sense it is clear the speaker now
considers humanity to be the true
monster.
So who's the monster? The thought made me grow pale
For twenty seconds while, sail after sail,
The tall fin slid away and then the tail.
Doesn’t think about it for
long – emphasises how man
is the monster
Shark is an elegant being –
contrast to at the start of the
poem
An overview of the stanzas
• Stanza One – MacCaig describes the chance meeting with the
shark and makes it clear it has happened before.
• Stanza Two – the meetings have had an effect on him and he
thinks back to one particular meeting.
• Stanza Three – he begins to question his position in the
evolutionary process.
• Stanza Four – explains how indistinct humans were from other
species at the beginning of the evolutionary process.
• Stanza Five – his opinion of the shark changes and
the poet reveals that he is not so sure of his own
superiority over the rest of nature.
Reflective nature of the poem
• In the interview ‘A Metaphorical Way of Seeing Things’, MacCaig
maintained that poetry is a ‘psychological Optrex, it clears your eyes
and you see things’.
• Like many of MacCaig’s poems, ‘Basking Shark’ moves from
description to reflection. This experience leads the poet to reflect on
his own and humanity’s relationship with the natural world and to
ponder ‘Who’s the monster?’.
Links to other poems
• Because of its EXPERIENCE related content – Basking Shark
can be linked to:
 Aunt Julia– both poems describe an experience / a character
vividly
 Visiting Hour – both poems describe an incident that leaves
them thinking about more powerful ideas (death / evolution)
 Sounds of the Day – both poems explore a normal experience
with greater feelings behind it
 Assisi* – both poems utilise vivid imagery when describing a
character / person and the more significant ideas related to
them (evolution / religion and hypocrisy) *Best poem to link to
Basking Shark