The Rime of the Albatross (AND SHAKESPEARE!)

 I will be honest, the first time I wrote this poem, I was completely lost. I thought it was a poem about a man that found his way to God and was trying to get away from the sea. And I was very, very wrong, let's get that out of the way. But now, a few years removed from reading it and picking it back up again, it's meaning is still elusive to me, as it taken me several read throughs to get the shaky understanding I have of it now. Form my understanding, the whole thing comes down to the Albatross -- the Albatross is the centerpiece of the story that the Ancient Marnier is trying to tell.

The Albatross is given a spiritual being about it, and it is hailed by the crew as some kind of harbinger of good fortune. Unfortunately, that does not stop the Ancient Marnier from shooting it with his crossbow, which brings great misfortune about the members of the ship. I believe this is meant to show just how fragile life and beauty is, as the Ancient Marnier shoots the poor bird and spends the rest of his life regretting it. I think it could also be a symbol for relating the need for spirituality, as the bird is relayed as an ethereal being to the shipmates and it is killed by a man who seemingly did not understand what the bird really was, a mirror of how people who do not understand religion often are the ones to kill their spiritual being without understanding and thus bring ruin upon themselves.  

I also would like to note, I think it's somewhat hilarious that the Wedding Guest keeps trying and trying to get away from the story, but just can't. It reminds me of Shakespeare almost, adding a bit of comedy to lighten up a rather dramatic and drab story. The whole poem in many ways reminds me of Shakespeare, as I have been reading lots of Shakespeare due to my other class, and the way in which Coleridge is mixing a comedic frame with a tragic story reminds me of something Shakespeare had done with his sonnets. 

P.S. I commented on Ian and Brylan's posts. 

Comments

  1. Brooke BradleyOctober 18, 2021 at 4:18 PM

    I really appreciate your insight, and I definitely see what you see. I also see irony in the fact that the man was the one to bring about his own misfortune by killing the thing that was supposed to bring him fortune. It seems as though it could speak to the fact that we sometimes sabotage ourselves.

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  2. Taylor ViceOctober 18, 2021 at 6:12 PM

    Yes, I definitely agree with your statement about the death of the albatross as an attempt to tell us that we do not understand how beautiful and fragile life is. I also do not think the Mariner did not quite understand religion either because he sought for the redemption of his sins from everyone but the one who could give it to him, God. // Taylor Vice

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