Hey Friends,
Remember that day when there was no poem-a-day? That was a bummer. In my defense, I was consumed by an entity that can only be described by Lord Alfred Tennyson:
The Kraken
Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, 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
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
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,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Tennyson did not invent the kraken — the creature had already been around in folklore for some time — but his poem is regarded as the quintessential description. Only 21 years old at the time “The Kraken” was published, Tennyson enjoyed the rare privilege of living to be an immensely popular and revered poet in his own lifetime.
Bonus points to anyone who finds or writes and sends me another poem that uses the word “polypi.”
To learn more about National Poetry Month, or to subscribe to a more official-like Poem-a-Day list, visit www.poets.org.
Best,
Ellen