POETIC TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS
In "The Shark" by Edwin John Pratt, there are a lot of sensory details. Mostly, imagery details. Edwin John Pratt consistently uses imagery to describe us the situation, events and the shark. At the beginning, poem described the body of a shark. (Tubular, and tapered, and smoke-blue.) Describing the body instead of telling that there is a shark helps readers to understand the situation better. Than poem started to tell the situation and the events that is happening. (Shark passed the wharf and turned. and snapped at a flat-fish that was dead and floating.) Poet used "And I saw the flash of a white throat,
And a double row of white teeth" instead of shark bit the fish. Via doing that, he makes us live the event instead of telling the event. We can see a shark biting a dead fish with its double row of teeth. Also, because of the imagery we can fell what shark feels. "And eyes of metallic grey". Metallic means insensitive in this sentence which leads to the understanding that shark doesn't have any kind of remorse or regret because of what he did. It is a cold-blooded murderer. Than shark leaves and poet describes his feelings about the shark to enlighten the view. As a conclusion, imagery makes you live the events instead of making you understand it. You see what's happening, where it is happening and what emotions the character is feeling. |
"Edwin John Pratt The Shark by Edwin John Pratt introduces the reader in detail to a shark, painting a picture so vivid you can practically see it in your mind's eye:"
His body was tubular And tapered And smoke-blue, And as he passed the wharf He turned, And snapped at a flat-fish That was dead and floating. And I saw the flash of a white throat, And a double row of white teeth, And eyes of metallic grey, Hard and narrow and slit. Then out of the harbour, With that three-cornered fin Shearing without a bubble the water Lithely, Leisurely, He swam—That strange fish, Tubular, tapered, smoke-blue, Part vulture, part wolf, Part neither—for his blood was cold. |