The poem
Often, to amuse themselves, the crew of the ship Would fell an albatross, the largest of sea birds, Indolent companions of their trip As they slide across the deep sea's bitters.
Scarcely had they dropped to the plank Than these blue kings, maladroit and ashamed Let their great white wings sink Like an oar dragging under the water's plane.
The winged visitor, so awkward and weak! So recently beautiful, now comic and ugly! One sailor grinds a pipe into his beak, Another, limping, mimics the infirm bird that once could fly.
The poet is like the prince of the clouds Who haunts the storm and laughs at lightning. He's exiled to the ground and its hooting crowds; His giant wings prevent him from walking.
I learned this poem when I was a child. There are some things you'll your children to know, The Albatross is one of them.
Ingrid
its a very nice poem, of oner of the most important poets of the world. i like the albatros. i like it.
Lovely.
The poem is constructed in sections and concludes with the poets comparison of a poet to the Albatross. It seems to me that perhaps the poet felt out of place in society, a man of words and thought, in a world of cruel jokes and persistent surrender to the crowd. Moving back through the poem there is the hint that the poet feels there is a common disregard or even contempt for the cultured man in this world. Is it…
Read the whole commentThe poem is constructed in sections and concludes with the poets comparison of a poet to the Albatross. It seems to me that perhaps the poet felt out of place in society, a man of words and thought, in a world of cruel jokes and persistent surrender to the crowd. Moving back through the poem there is the hint that the poet feels there is a common disregard or even contempt for the cultured man in this world. Is it so strange that the picture of shame is used in regard to the wounded captured albatross? How can one singular thing of beauty fight the world when the world has already taken to strike it down and make it ugly? The final question I ask myself; I feel has no firm answer other than the personal. Is the poet eluding to the act of consensus of opinion or to envy or to both?
do you know what kind of poem this is?
insightfull thoughts...
I had to memorize this poem, when I was a Freshman
in High School. Mr. Bernett was our English teacher.
What a chore that was. But to this day, can remember
some parts of it.
Very clever how the analogy is drawn in the last stanza. You feel sympathy for the albatross while reading the first 3 stanzas, rather than contempt at what could come across as rightousness if the analogy was revealed beforehand.
The Poem
I had to do this poem for school. It sucks.