Analysis of The Albatross
Charles Baudelaire 1821 (Paris) – 1867 (Paris)
Often to pass the time on board, the crew
will catch an albatross, one of those big birds
which nonchalently chaperone a ship
across the bitter fathoms of the sea.
Tied to the deck, this sovereign of space,
as if embarrassed by its clumsiness,
pitiably lets its great white wings
drag at its sides like a pair of unshipped oars.
How weak and awkward, even comical
this traveller but lately so adoit -
one deckhand sticks a pipestem in its beak,
another mocks the cripple that once flew!
The Poet is like this monarch of the clouds
riding the storm above the marksman's range;
exiled on the ground, hooted and jeered,
he cannot walk because of his great wings.
Scheme | AXXX XXBX XCXA XXCB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1011011101 1111011111 111001 0101010101 110111011 1101011100 111111 1111101111 1101010100 110011011 11101011 0101010111 0101111101 100101011 11011001 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 652 |
Words | 121 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 136 Views
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"The Albatross" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/5008/the-albatross>.
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