The Kraken
The Kraken - fact Summary
First Printed in 1830
The Kraken is a short, imagistic narrative about a colossal, sleep‑bound sea monster lying in the ocean depths until an apocalyptic moment when it will rise and die on the surface. The poem emphasizes vast time, subterranean mystery, and a single climactic awakening, using seascape imagery to suggest forces beyond human sight or control. It reflects early Romantic fascination with the uncanny and the sublime.
Read Complete AnalysesBelow the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His antient, 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 Unnumber’d and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening 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.
Reprinted without alteration, except in the spelling of “antient,” among Juvenilia in 1871 and onward.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.