Albatross (metaphor)
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The word albatross is sometimes used to mean an encumbrance, or a wearisome burden.[1] It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).
In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship, and is seen as a good omen. However the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, and attributes all the mishaps that follow to this. The symbolism used in the poem is its highlight. For example:
- Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks
- Had I from old and young !
- Instead of the cross, the Albatross
- About my neck was hung.
This sense is catalogued in the Oxford English Dictionary from 1936 and 1955, but it seems only to have entered general usage in the 1960s.
Also, the word albatross is used in page six of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which Robert Walton is speaking to his sister through a letter and states,"...but I shall kill no albatross...", an allusion quite clearly referring to the poem by her close acquaintance, Coleridge. The novel 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'Albatross about men on ships who shoot the birds with bows and arrows for sport. In the final stanza, he goes on to compare the birds to poets - exiled from earth and weighed down by their giant wings.
[edit] In music
Post-Punk band Public Image ltd have a song named 'Albatross' on their 1979 album Metal Box. lyrics include:
- getting rid of the albatross
- Sowing the seeds of discontent
- riding along on the crest of a wave
The progressive rock band, Pink Floyd, speaks of an albatross in their 23 minute song, Echoes. the lyrics start out:
- Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
- And deep beneath the rolling waves, in labyrinths of coral caves,
- The echo of a distant tide comes willowing across the sand,
- And everything is green and submarine.
The experimental Scottish-born/British musician, Momus (Nick Currie), alludes to this metaphor in his 1988 song "The Charm of Innocence." The refrain is:
- I was born with the charm of innocence
- On my back like a cross
- Thorns upon my forehead
- Round my neck I wore it
- Sometimes a rabbit's claw
- Sometimes an albatross
Also in music Rickie Lee Jones refers to this metaphor in her song 'The Albatross'
The lyrics begin:
There, there is my ship Finally come in I see the mast rolling on the steps Over the garden wall I hear the sailor's call I see the albatross
Also, the Little River Band's song "Cool Change" contains the lyrics:
Well I was born in the sign of water And it's there that I feel my best The albatross and the whales they are my brothers There's lots of those friendly people And they're showing me ways to go And I never want to lose their inspiration
The punk rock band Bad Religion also references the albatross in their song "It's a Long Way to the Promised Land." The lyrics start out:
- It's a long way
- To the promised land
- So you better well know your way
- There's a ship on the ocean
- And an albatross who is trying to lead you astray
Brave Saint Saturn also has a song titled "Albatross" where they compare the albatross to the christian cross.
- Around my neck there is an albatross.
- Some people think it looks, looks like a cross,
- But it's not, it's - well it's an albatross.
- There to remind me of who I'll never be, never be, never be.
In the song Rebels of the Sacred Heart by Irish/Californian "punk" band Flogging Molly singer Dave King sings:
"the albatross hanging round your neck, is the cross you bear for he sins he bleeds"
....comparing the albatross to the Catholic cross, the song being about life as a Irish Catholic school rebel-youngster
Hardcore/Prog band Converge have a song titled "Albatross," using the metaphor to describe the regret and guilt felt after the death of five friends.
The word albatross was also used in the poem "Snake" by D. H. Lawrence
[edit] External links
- A cartoon appearing in The Economist newspaper that alludes to the described metaphor .
