"Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung": The Albatross Myth
The albatross is a large sea bird that lives primarily in the southern hemisphere. Albatrosses have incredibly long wingspans that allow them to "float" on ocean winds and breezes for hours at a time. In fact, they spend most of their long lives wandering the ocean winds, coming to land only to breed. The birds can float on the ocean's surface, which they will often do to catch and eat various kinds of fish. Yet, much of the birds' diet and life remains a mystery as researchers cannot easily follow them gliding throughout the world. An albatross can live up to 50 years, although most of the 21 different species currently face extinction (due to a combination of pollution, fishing, and other species).
In the popular and literary imagination, however, the albatross stands for much more than a sea bird. The albatross is often used as a metaphor for a curse (often psychological in nature), and authors have routinely used the bird as an omen or symbol. The mythical notion of the bird derives from its relationship with sailors--its seemingly magical presence floating over the ocean for days at a time would certainly have astounded early sailors who would work on the sea for years at a time. Indeed, historical records show that albatrosses would sometimes land on ships and ride along with the crew, perhaps for a brief respite from their wandering existence. Although sailors often killed and ate the birds, the albatross gained a reputation as a good omen. For many sailors, killing an albatross would result in bad luck, or even a curse on the head of he who shot the bird.
No poem better captures the psychological metaphor of the albatross than Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." The poem was first published in 1798 as part of a collection entitled Lyrical Ballads, and Coleridge later revised and republished the poem in 1817. In the poem, an aged mariner tells a harrowing tale to a nervous wedding guest. The Mariner describes how he inexplicably shoots an albatross while sailing, which results in disastrous weather, the deaths of all his fellow mariners, and a life-long curse that propels him to wander the earth:
And I had done an hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay
that mad the breeze to blow! (91-6)
Before the other sailors die, however, they force the Mariner to wear the albatross around his neck in a symbolic gesture of the curse he must carry for the rest of his life:
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung. (139-42)
Others followed in Coleridge's footsteps, but "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" single-handedly cemented the albatross's mythical and metaphorical status in literature. Now, when one reads of an albatross in a novel or poem or essay, there is an inevitable connection to Coleridge's poem and to the albatross myth.
In the popular and literary imagination, however, the albatross stands for much more than a sea bird. The albatross is often used as a metaphor for a curse (often psychological in nature), and authors have routinely used the bird as an omen or symbol. The mythical notion of the bird derives from its relationship with sailors--its seemingly magical presence floating over the ocean for days at a time would certainly have astounded early sailors who would work on the sea for years at a time. Indeed, historical records show that albatrosses would sometimes land on ships and ride along with the crew, perhaps for a brief respite from their wandering existence. Although sailors often killed and ate the birds, the albatross gained a reputation as a good omen. For many sailors, killing an albatross would result in bad luck, or even a curse on the head of he who shot the bird.
No poem better captures the psychological metaphor of the albatross than Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." The poem was first published in 1798 as part of a collection entitled Lyrical Ballads, and Coleridge later revised and republished the poem in 1817. In the poem, an aged mariner tells a harrowing tale to a nervous wedding guest. The Mariner describes how he inexplicably shoots an albatross while sailing, which results in disastrous weather, the deaths of all his fellow mariners, and a life-long curse that propels him to wander the earth:
And I had done an hellish thing,
And it would work 'em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay
that mad the breeze to blow! (91-6)
Before the other sailors die, however, they force the Mariner to wear the albatross around his neck in a symbolic gesture of the curse he must carry for the rest of his life:
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung. (139-42)
Others followed in Coleridge's footsteps, but "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" single-handedly cemented the albatross's mythical and metaphorical status in literature. Now, when one reads of an albatross in a novel or poem or essay, there is an inevitable connection to Coleridge's poem and to the albatross myth.