The Albatross

Poem by Charles Baudelaire Collection The Flowers of EvilThemes AnimalsPeriod 19th century

Often, to amuse themselves, the men of the crew
Take albatrosses, vast birds of the seas,
Who follow, indolent companions of the voyage,
The ship gliding over bitter gulfs.

Scarcely have they placed them on the planks,
When these kings of the sky, awkward and ashamed,
Let pitifully their great white wings
Drag like oars beside them.

This winged traveler, how clumsy and feeble he is!
He, so recently beautiful, how comic and ugly!
One teases his beak with a short pipe,
Another mimes, limping, the cripple who flew!

The Poet is like the prince of the clouds
Who haunts the storm and laughs at the archer;
Exiled on the ground amid the jeers,
His giant wings keep him from walking.

Charles Baudelaire

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