The Shark
by Edwin John Pratt
• 28 poems by: Edwin John Pratt
He
seemed to know the harbour,
So leisurely he swam;
His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,
And with knife-edge,
Stirred not a bubble
As it moved
With its base-line on the water.
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.
So leisurely he swam;
His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,
And with knife-edge,
Stirred not a bubble
As it moved
With its base-line on the water.
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.
A simple analysis of “the shark” poem by using semiotics approach
My
Analysis
Semiotics approach is possible to conceive of a science which studies the
role of signs as part of social life. It would form part of social psychology,
and hence of general psychology. We shall call it semiology (from the Greek
semeîon, 'sign'). It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws
governing them. Since it does not yet exist, one cannot say for certain that it
will exist. But it has a right to exist, a place ready for it in advance.
Linguistics is only one branch of this general science. The laws which semiology
will discover will be laws applicable in linguistics, and linguistics will thus
be assigned to a clearly defined place in the field of human knowledge.
(Saussure 1983, 15-16; Saussure 1974, 16).
Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in
everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a
semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and
objects.
The shark is a poem which was written by Edwin John Pratt.
This poem describes about shark, all the forms/shapes are expressed, all of the
characteristics are represented well, and all of the imageries are combined. By
reading the title, reader can directly interpret about a shark which is strong,
has a tubular shape, the setting of the poem took place in harbor which
convincingly strengthen the reader that is a real shark. This poem is unique
due to the fact that it blatantly describes the metaphorical meaning in such a
way that it could be taken either way by the reader if read literally. The
title of this piece is not only a persuasion of the reader’s mindset, but a
clue to the underlying meaning as well.
The title of this poem holds great persuasion in the
reader’s mind. Before one even reads the poem they have a mindset of a living
shark, which is or whatever they associate with sharks. By titling this piece
as he did Pratt was able to describe the boat as he did without anything
looking odd, but was also able to metaphorically describe this machine as a
shark at same time. If the poem was titled “The Machine” the persuasion to see
the machine would take away from the “shark” aspect and the reader wouldn’t get
the same analysis from it.
Furthermore, the analysis would be very different when the
title is the ship. The whole poem describes about shark, however the
explanation can be for a ship which has machine gun. One thing that ensured me
is in the first stanza at the last line /As it moved
With its base-line on the water/. As usual, fish always forming line, however, shark never comes with a large group. The word base can be meant the office or such as base camp in the ship.
With its base-line on the water/. As usual, fish always forming line, however, shark never comes with a large group. The word base can be meant the office or such as base camp in the ship.
In the second stanza the mood is shifted to a more
mechanical tone. The sentences are cut off abruptly, each proceeding line yet
another bit of the visual description of this animal. The comparisons become
more and more deliberate, allowing the reader to easily see a clear pattern.
“And eyes of metallic grey, / Hard and narrow slit,” is a clear example of the
comparison. This could be an actual animal, or just as probable; a boat or a
battleship.
The poem was able to take the reader’s attention with the
title at first, and the proceeding text. It allowed the reader to understand
that it was describing the “shark” but intending a ship. The descriptions of
heartless metallic elements implied the cruel of this ship as it took to sea,
as to that of a shark. however the implication that the shark is a boat comes
with further understanding of the metaphorical meanings.
My whole analysis interprets about the using of shark
instead of a battleship. Because this poem was written in 1922 in the era of
world war I. Pratt was probably influenced by the negative of that war. By
provoking a response in his audience, readers can realize that while humans are
compassionate by nature, they can just as easily do great evil.
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