What is basking shark by Norman MacCaig about?

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’s the monster?

What does decadent Townee mean?

The very first idea he comes up with is to criticise himself. He is quite self-deprecating – he puts himself down in a gently humorous way – by calling himself a “decadent townee”. The word choice of “decadent” suggests that he is spoilt and lazy, and that he lives for luxury and self-indulgence.

What happens in the first stanza of basking shark?

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. The onomatopoeic swish of the water also alludes to the idea of displacement in the previous stanza.

What is the tone of the basking shark poem?

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.

What does Slounge mean?

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.

What is hotel room 12th floor about?

Hotel Room, 12 th Floor is a pessimistic poem that questions humanity’s ability to defeat primitive impulses. Like Brooklyn Cop, Hotel Room, 12 th Floor explores the thin line between modern society and basic human instincts of violence and destruction, and the dangers of urban society.

What does Aunt Julia represent?

She represents a traditional Scottish way of being that no longer exists. All those details that he cherishes and values about her now belong to a by-gone age. We get a strong sense of that loss in the final stanza: “Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast.

Is Slounge a real word?

What does Shoggled mean?

to shake or joggle
transitive) to shake or joggle. 2. ( intransitive) to shake or swing around.

What does Uncivilised darkness mean?

“Uncivilised darkness” Suggests that modern America is in conflict with anything foreign. They don’t like night. This quote also suggests it’s unwelcome. “Shot at by a million lit windows”

What is the mood of Hotel Room 12th floor?

Though the poem begins with light-hearted imagery, with the Empire State Building compared to a jumbo size dentist’s drill , the mood gradually becomes more sombre and reflective, with the ominous conclusion that no stockades can keep the midnight out as humans seek shelter from the uncivilised darkness that night …

What kind of poem is Aunt Julia?

autobiographical poem
This is an autobiographical poem so it makes sense that the poet employs a first person narrative stance.

Who is the author of the basking shark?

Basking Shark. Norman MacCaig. 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. 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.

What is the subject of basking shark higher English?

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.

Who is the monster in Basking shark by Norman MacCaig?

So who’s the monster? The thought made me grow pale The tall fin slid away and then the tail.

What kind of form does MacCaig use in his poetry?

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. He often varied his style according to the internal requirements of a particular poem.