Post-Naturalist Triumph and Romantic Trenchs in the 21st Century. Peter Benchley and The Kraken (1). March 23, 2021

Tennyson, 'The Kraken" (1850)

BELOW the thunders of the upper deep;

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flec

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 enormus polypi

Winnow with giant arms and 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.