The Maldive Shark Literary Elements

The Maldive Shark Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The poem is told from the perspective of a third person objective point of view.

Form and Meter

The poem is composed out of 12 lines with little rhythm or rime.

Metaphors and Similes

The inside of the shark’s mouth is used here as the central metaphor, representing the safety offered by an oppressive regime.

Alliteration and Assonance

We find an alliteration in the line “They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey”.

Irony

An ironic element is the way in which the smaller fish is described as having found something akin to safety inside the mouth of the shark, the larger predator who tried to kill it..

Genre

Meditative poem

Setting

The action described in the poem takes place on the coast of the Maldives Islands.

Tone

The tone used in the poem is a threatening and dangerous one.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is the little fish and the antagonists are the predators trying to kill it.

Major Conflict

The major conflict in the poem is the difference between cohesion and taking responsibility for one’s actions.

Climax

The poem reaches its climax when the small fish leaves the safety offered by the shark’s mouth.

Foreshadowing

The first line of the poem is used to foreshadow the later danger in which the little fish will be in.

Understatement

When the narrator claims the little fish is completely safe inside the shark’s mouth is an understatement because it later admits the fish could die at any moment.

Allusions

One of the allusions made in the poem is the idea that at times, the thing or the place we perceive as being the most dangerous is actually the safest.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The little fish is used here as a general way to make reference to those people who appear to be harmless but who are in reality extremely manipulative and even dangerous.

Personification

We find a personification in the line “his saw-pit of mouth”.

Hyperbole

We have a hyperbole in the line “An asylum in jaws of the Fates!”.

Onomatopoeia

N/A

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