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
