The Kraken by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

[conuly]

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

****

Link

Comments

cardify

[minoanmiss]

oooh I should make cards out of this one. I am reminded of reading it delightedly as a child.

Re: cardify

[conuly]

Oooh! You should!

[spiralsheep]

Cheery chap, old Al, wasn't he? Makes Yeats look mildly melacholic by comparison.

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

isn't in quite the same league as

"Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."

I'm very tempted to do a bad faith line-by-line reading of this poem to see how far I could misconstrue it for fun. :D

[adafrog]

Cool.

[smokingboot]

Wonderful, thanks! It rumbles in my head as I read it.

[conuly]

Be sure to post the results!