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The word albatross is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse.
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It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). [1]
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The word albatross is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse.
It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798). [1]
In the poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner , an albatross follows a ship setting out to sea, which is considered a sign of good luck. However, the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, an act that will curse the ship and cause it to suffer terrible mishaps. Unable to speak due to lack of water, the ship's crew let the mariner know through their glances that they blame him for their plight and they tie the bird around his neck as a sign of his guilt. From this arose the image of an albatross around the neck as metaphor for a burden that is difficult to escape.
This sense is catalogued in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1883, but it seems only to have entered general usage in the 1960s.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , Robert Walton mentions the poem by name and says of an upcoming journey that "I shall kill no albatross", clearly a reference to the poem by Shelley's close acquaintance, Coleridge. Frankenstein was first published in 1818, long before the term was introduced into the Oxford Dictionary.
Charles Baudelaire's collection of poems Les Fleurs du mal contains a poem entitled "L'Albatros" (1857) about men on ships who catch the albatrosses for sport. In the final stanza, he goes on to compare the poets to the birds — exiled from the skies and then weighed down by their giant wings, till death.
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick alludes to Coleridge's albatross. [2]
In his poem Snake, published in Birds, Beasts and Flowers , D. H. Lawrence mentions the albatross in Ancient Mariner.
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He also shared volumes and collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss. Along with other poems in Lyrical Ballads, it is often considered a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.
A Spy in the House of Love is a 1954 novel by Anaïs Nin. Alongside her other novels, Ladders to Fire, Children of the Albatross, The Four-Chambered Heart and Seduction of the Minotaur, it was gathered into a collection known as Cities of the Interior. The novel follows the character of Sabina, a woman who enjoys the sexual licence typically associated with men. Sabina wears extravagant outfits and deliberately avoids romantic commitments. She pursues sexual pleasure in isolation of any other romantic attachment.
The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and of Dutch maritime power. The oldest known extant version of the legend dates from the late 18th century. According to the legend, if hailed by another ship, the crew of the Flying Dutchman might try to send messages to land, or to people long dead. Reported sightings in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed that the ship glowed with a ghostly light. In ocean lore, the sight of this phantom ship functions as a portent of doom. It was commonly believed that the Flying Dutchman was a seventeenth-century cargo vessel known as a fluyt.
George Shelvocke was an English Royal Navy officer and later privateer who in 1726 wrote A Voyage Round the World by Way of the Great South Sea based on his exploits. It includes an account of how his second captain, Simon Hatley, shot an albatross off Cape Horn, an incident which provided the dramatic motive in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
"Albatross" is a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac, released as a single in November 1968, later featuring on the compilation albums The Pious Bird of Good Omen (UK) and English Rose (US). The piece was composed by Peter Green.
An albatross is one of a family of large winged seabirds.
Christabel is a long narrative ballad by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in two parts. The first part was reputedly written in 1797, and the second in 1800. Coleridge planned three additional parts, but these were never completed. Coleridge prepared for the first two parts to be published in the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads, his collection of poems with William Wordsworth, but left it out on Wordsworth's advice. The exclusion of the poem, coupled with his inability to finish it, left Coleridge in doubt about his poetical power. It was published in a pamphlet in 1816, alongside Kubla Khan and The Pains of Sleep.
Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" has been frequently referenced and parodied in contemporary culture. Immediately popular after the poem's publication in 1845, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Some consider it the best poem ever written. As such, modern references to the poem continue to appear in popular culture.
"Down Neck" is the seventh episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos. It was written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, and directed by Lorraine Senna Ferrara. It aired on February 21, 1999.
Norman Clifford Bowler is an English actor, best known for his role as Frank Tate in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.
The Pious Bird of Good Omen is a compilation album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1969. It consists of their first four non-album UK singles and their B-sides, two other tracks from their previous album Mr. Wonderful, and two tracks by the blues artist Eddie Boyd with backing by members of Fleetwood Mac. These two tracks came from Boyd's album 7936 South Rhodes.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner has been referenced in various works of popular culture.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 1975 film by director Raúl daSilva. It is a photoanimated-live action visualization of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 poem of the same name, featuring a direct reading given by British actor Michael Redgrave. DaSilva's film has won multiple minor awards and recognitions and, according to daSilva, has been said to effectively render the otherwise-difficult poem comprehensible by even the youngest of readers.
Simon Hatley was an English sailor involved in two hazardous privateering voyages to the South Pacific Ocean. On the second voyage, with his ship beset by storms south of Cape Horn, Hatley shot an albatross, an incident immortalised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his 1798 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
In Classical Greek, Lethe literally means "forgetfulness" or "concealment" and is related to the Greek word for "truth": a-lethe-ia (αλήθεια), meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment". The River Lethe in Greek Mythology has appeared many times in popular culture since the times of ancient Greece.
Coney Island has been featured in novels, films, television shows, cartoons, and theatrical plays.
Charles Bukowski's work has influenced popular culture many times over in many forms, and his work has been referenced in film, television, music and theater.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
albatross.
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