The Kraken

By Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 – 1892)

This poem talks about how the sea monster named the Kraken is sleeping in the depths of the sea, and the sunlight "runs," away from him. The author uses personification in this stanza when he writes: "The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee," which I guess means that the Kraken was so scary that the sunlight ran away.

The sensory images used in this poem are sight and sound images.

Sight Images

"About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;"

"Unnumbered and enormous polypi;"

"Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green."

"Battering upon huge sea worms in his sleep,"

Sound Image

"In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die."

The poet writes that when the end of days comes the kraken will float up to the surface dead and that all the living creatures including the angels shall marvel at its size, but in a few moments it will sink back into the ocean where it shall dissappear.