The Albatross

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1861

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Related Poems

“Correspondences” by Charles Baudelaire (1857)

Also published in Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), “Correspondances” is perhaps Baudelaire’s most famous poem, a sonnet that outlines his aesthetic of symbolism and synesthesia, or the intermingling of the senses. The poem, which posits that the natural world consists of symbols for the poet to decipher, came to define the aesthetic of the French Symbolist movement in poetry.

“Elevation” by Charles Baudelaire (1857)

Also published in Les Fleurs du mal, “Elevation” likens the poetic spirit to a bird, free of the concerns of mortal existence and society’s ills. Images of flight and liberation make this poem an interesting counterpoint to “The Albatross.” In fact, in the 1861 edition of Les Fleurs du mal, Baudelaire placed “Elevation” immediately after “The Albatross,” a choice that was significant given that Baudelaire wanted each poem in the collection to correspond to its neighbors.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

One of the Coleridge’s major poems and a key example of supernaturalism in Romantic poetry, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was published in Lyrical Ballads in 1798. The poem tells of a sea voyage in which a mariner kills an albatross, a bird considered a good omen among sailors. When calamity befalls the ship, the mariner’s fellow crewmen blame him for their misfortune, tying the dead albatross around his neck as a symbol of his guilt. From this poem comes the expression “to have an albatross around one’s neck,” which means to bear a heavy burden. The poem’s depiction of sailors and the albatross and its symbolic approach to the oceanic bird prefigure Baudelaire’s poem.

Further Literary Resources

“How Baudelaire Revolutionized Modern Literature” by Adam Thirwell (2013)

In this article published in New Republic in 2013, British novelist Adam Thirwell examines Baudelaire in historical context. He argues that Baudelaire’s unique sensibility, and especially the poet’s vulnerability, pervades literature to this day. In particular, the essay explores how Baudelaire made an art form of self-scrutiny and self-abasement. Thirwell writes, “[Baudelaire] cultivated humiliation as a way of life.”

“The Lesson of Baudelaire” by T. S. Eliot (1921)

This short essay by the Nobel Prize-winning English poet T. S. Eliot appeared in a literary magazine called The Tyro in 1921. The essay considers Baudelaire’s influence on world literature. Eliot particularly praises Baudelaire’s attention to the question of good and evil, claiming that this is the key issue of literature. He famously refers to Baudelaire as “a deformed Dante,” alluding to the Italian poet’s Divine Comedy. Eliot praises Baudelaire’s commitment to the question of good and evil in order to castigate fellow English poets for their lack of resolve in writing about this most important matter.

Intimate Journals by Charles Baudelaire (1949)

Published posthumously and translated into English in 1949 by Anglo-American novelist Christopher Isherwood, Baudelaire’s Intimate Journals is a work that contains occasional reflections by Baudelaire on art, politics, theology, and more. Written as a sprawling diary, the text offers valuable insight into Baudelaire’s obsessions, his wit, as well as his shameful qualities, including his misogyny.