The Kraken - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

hes a victorian poet, obsessed with death, medieval literature and arthurian legends

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

1 stanza, 15 lines
could be argued that the rhyme scheme contributes to a sense of monotomy, note assonantal ‘‘ee’’ sound echoes among other rhymes, deviates from a typical rhyme scheme

Question 3

‘Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

Answer 3

‘Below…beneath’ - prepositions
‘thunders of the upper deep’ - chaos/problems occur beneath the seas surface (could be representative of subconscious thoughts and how troubled is brewed by keeping them in)
‘Far, far beneath’ - repetition of adj ‘far’ in the prepositional phrase to highlight the depths at which the monster dwells
‘abysmal sea’ - can literally mean awful, but ‘abyss’ - can also mean pit of nothingness, indicates how dark the ocean is

Question 4

‘Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,’

Answer 4

‘Huge sponges of millennial growth and height’ - massive in size, sponges could connote how we are collecting and collecting uncomfortable, subconscious thoughts till there is too much pressure and it all comes out
‘sickly’ - eerie, enchanted contrasts his silent stature.
- light also symbolic of truth, absence of the light reflects absence of truth, hiding

Question 5

‘Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie’

Answer 5

‘Unnumbered’ - overwhelming, countless
‘giant fins’ - reiterates size of the Kraken
‘will lie’ - modal verb, perhaps ‘lie’ in a literal sense, lies and secretes are hidden and oppressed deep down

Question 6

‘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,’

Answer 6

‘battening upon huge sea worms’ - emphasises his exceedingly great size for he is battening upon already huge sea worms
‘latter fire shall heat the deep’ - hell, bible reference to the ‘day of reckoning’ - apocalyptic tone
‘man and angels to be seen’ - reference again to the bible of the end and of death coming soon.