The Kraken
Below the thunders of the upper deep;Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleepThe Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights fleeAbout his shadowy sides: above him swellHuge sponges of millennial growth and height;And far away into the sickly light,From many a wondrous grot and secret cellUnnumber’d and enormous polypiWinnow with giant arms the slumbering green.There hath he lain for ages and will lieBattening upon huge seaworms 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.
Words in this poem
- abysmal a.
- Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound.
- dreamless a.
- Free from, or without, dreams. Camden.
- kraken n.
- A fabulous Scandinavian sea monster, often represented as resembling an island, but sometimes as resembling an immense octopus. [Prob. from OSw. krake, or ODan. krage the trunk of a tree, the branches of which are not entirely cut off, to which it was likened by the Norwegian mariners.]
- millennial a.
- Of or pertaining to the millennium, or to a thousand years; as, a millennial period; millennial happiness.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- battening n.
- Furring done with small pieces nailed directly upon the wall.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Kraken is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Project Gutenberg ebook #8601; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, The Kraken, in The Early Poems (1830–1842), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8601, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-early-poems/the-kraken.html, id L16598.
Form and metre
The Kraken is 15 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, as Wikipedia: The Kraken (poem) has it. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDDC-EFAAEF deepA · seaB · sleepA · fleeB · swellC · heightD · lightD · cellC · polypi · greenE · lieF · sleepA · deepA · seenE · dieF
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Below the thunders of the upper deep; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/·· |
| About his shadowy sides: above him swell | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| And far away into the sickly light, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| From many a wondrous grot and secret cell | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Unnumber’d and enormous polypi | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. | 10 | /··/˘··/˘· |
| There hath he lain for ages and will lie | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Then once by man and angels to be seen, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
On this poem
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.