Poetry Analysis

The Shark – Edwin John Pratt

He seemed to know the harbor ,
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.

BIOGRAPHY

EJ Pratt was born Edwin John Dove Pratt in Western Bay, Newfoundland, on February 4, 1882. John Pratt was originally a lead miner from Old Gang mines in Gunnerside - a village in North Yorkshire, England. In 1850’s he became a Methodist pastor and immigrated to Newfoundland and settled down with Fanny Knight, a daughter of Capt. E.J. Pratt . Like his father he became a candidate for the Methodist ministry, in 1904, and served a three-year probation before entering Victoria College of the University of Toronto. He studied psychology and theology, receiving his BA in 1911 and his Bachelor of Divinity in 1913. Pratt married fellow Victoria College student Viola Whitney, herself a writer, in 1918, and they had one daughter, Claire Pratt, who also became a writer and poet.

Pratt was ordained as a minister, in 1913, and served as an Assistant Minister in Streetsville, Ontario, until 1920. Also in 1913, he joined the University of Toronto as a Lecturer in psychology. As well, he continued to take classes, receiving his PhD in 1917. Pratt was invited by Pelham Edgar in 1920 to switch to the University's faculty of English, where he became a professor in 1930 and a Senior Professor in 1938. He taught English literature at Victoria College until his retirement in 1953. He served as Literary Adviser to the Editorial Board of the College magazine, Acta Victoriana. As a professor, Pratt published a number of articles, reviews, and introductions (including those to four Shakespeare plays, and edited Thomas Hardy's Under the greenwood tree (1937). Pratt died in 82 years old in April 26, 1964 at Toronto.

INTRODUCTION

The Shark written by E.J. Pratt has three stanza and non rhyming poetry. Overall, this poetry describe about the shark with their physical appearance and behavior. As we know, shark is kind of carnivore or an animal which ate all kind of flesh and kind of wild animal too in the sea. This poetry is a portrait of a fierce creature and the author describe it with comparing another object in the land or another object that aren’t available in the sea. I take this poetry as the object of my paper because I was interested with the title of this poet. When we (as the reader) read the title, we will start to think about the shark and whatever we associate with the shark such as the body, the place where shark’s live, or maybe the of the shark. Without read this poetry actually the reader already knew the description of the shark with their own perception, but this poetry describe the shark clearly and comparing several object as the  object comparison in order to support Pratt’s perception about shark .

In this essay, I will analyze and concern to figurative language especially comparison style using metaphor and simile. The author used figurative language to express their perception and feel in interesting way to attract the reader. Based on www.dailywritingtips.com simile is kind of metaphor but not all metaphors are simile. Metaphor is the broader term. In a literary sense metaphor is a rhetorical device that transfers the sense or aspects of one word to another. A simile is a type of metaphor in which the comparison is made with the use of the word like or its equivalent. So simile actually part of metaphor but it has a little differences between one to another . Metaphor in this poetry not only dominant, but also very obvious as well and Pratt succeed express his perception using metaphor in interesting situation.

DISCUSSION

This poetry is divided into three stanza and each stanza contains of figurative language especially metaphor and simile. In the first stanza we can find both of metaphor and simile in line 3-5 :

“His fin,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
Three-cornered,
And with knife-edge”

It’s clear that Pratt’s wanted to compare the shark’s fin with piece of sheet iron . As we know, iron is a hard and very strong metal, and it will be hard for us if we have to defeat with this object. The prove that in this line there’s figurative language of simile is word “like”  which it actually the real sign of simile. Then in my perception if we imagine sheet of iron it might be something that can cut everything that crosses in front of it’s path or edge. Moreover, this stanza also add explanation how the shark’s fin can be something like a knife-edge. We can imagine how sharp the shark’s fin is . Shark’s fin also describe that the fin is part of the shark’s body which is something that fearless and powerful. This stanza actually contain of metaphore too but in the previous explanation said that all simile are metaphore, so if we talk about simile it means that we talk about metaphore too.

In the second stanza, we can see the using of metaphore in comparing the shark’s body with other object.

“His body was tubular

And tapered

And smoke-blue,”

If we hear that clue, what will we guess with the object ? A submarine ? Yes, that’s true ! In the beginning of the second stanza, the author compares the shark’s body with a submarine . The submarine shape is quite similar with the shark’s body, tubular, tapered , and the color is smoke blue too . The body of shark and submarine is tubular and tapered because it will help them to dive in the air, and the color of the submarine and the shark is smoke blue is one of their way to disguise in the sea water and the other animals maybe will not realize if they are in that place. That is one of the comparison using metaphore, the other sign of metaphore is wrote by Pratt when he said :

“And eyes of metallic grey,

Hard and narrow and slit.”

The shark’s eyes compare with another object that has metallic and grey color. In my perception eyes with narrow and slit is kind of cunning and murderer eyes, I mean a cruel murderer besides other possibility is eyes with characteristic like that maybe is insensitive animal. The shark doesn’t have any kind of regret after they beat and kill another creature in the sea.

The last stanza describe and compare about the shark’s behavior with other wild animal. When the author said :

“Part vulture, part wolf,

Part neither—for his blood was cold.”

Pratt used metaphore in this part of poetry with another carnivore and deadly predator such as vulture and wolf, animals which is available in the land . Both of them are really cruel animal and eat flesh too. Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, vulture is  a large bird usually without features that eat the flesh of animal that are already dead. The sharks disguises as a part of vulture in the sea when they eat a died animal. Besides compared with a vulture, the shark also compare with another predator in the land, that’s a wolf.