Audiobook · read by volunteers
Kraken
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)
Read by Clarica, Hit_Picker, JemmaBlythe, Jc Guan, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Karen Savage, Lee Ann Howlett, Mark F. Smith, Michelle White, Paul Sze · 11 chapters · 14 min
About the book
Far below the surface of the sea, in the deepest water, a monstrous creature lies in an ancient sleep. Tennyson’s short poem The Kraken, which he published while still in his early twenties, gives it a dark and dreamy home, among giant sponges and faint sunlight, and it hints at what will happen when the creature finally wakes. In fifteen lines the poem builds a whole world of silence, depth and menace. Eleven recordings by LibriVox volunteers are gathered here, so you can hear how pace and tone shape the effect of the same few lines. Every recording is very short, and the whole set lasts only about twelve minutes. It is a perfect little portion for fans of the sea, of strange creatures and of poetry that conjures a great deal from a handful of words.
Introduction
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who lived from 1809 to 1892, was the leading English poet of the Victorian age and became Poet Laureate in 1850. Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the son of a clergyman, he later wrote In Memoriam and Idylls of the King. The Kraken is an early poem, published in 1830 in his collection Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, and it takes as its subject the legendary sea monster of Scandinavian sailors’ tales, which had passed into European natural history and literature.
The poem is brief, only fifteen lines long, and it has a strong sense of music. It describes a creature that sleeps at the bottom of the ocean, among huge sponges and dim light, undisturbed by the world above, and it ends with a prophecy of its rising. Tennyson uses the image to suggest something vast and hidden, and critics have often admired the economy with which he builds the atmosphere.
This recording belongs to the weekly poetry project that LibriVox volunteers run. Each week a short poem is selected, and many readers record it separately, so the result is a set of versions rather than one performance. There are eleven here, each labelled with the reader’s initials. Each reader makes their own choices of pace and emphasis.
Because the poem is so short, it is easy to listen to several versions in succession, and the whole set takes only about twelve minutes. Today it is worth hearing as a compact example of Victorian imagination at its most atmospheric, and as a chance to compare how different voices shape a poem.
Public domain
Alfred, Lord Tennyson died in 1892: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text