ALBATROSS AND THE ANCIENT MARINER

 

ALBATROSS AND THE ANCIENT MARINER

 

Its a bird, its a plane, its Albatross !

 

An albatross is a large, magnificent seabird capable of soaring incredible distances without rest. Long viewed with superstitious awe by sailors, they spend most of their time gliding over the open ocean. Most people around the world rarely get a glimpse of these unique birds because even when they do visit dry land, it's often only to breed on remote islands before going back out to sea. Despite the distance they've managed to maintain from people, however, most albatross species are now threatened with extinction due to human activities.

 

 

 

 

Albatrosses are the world's largest flying seabirds. They spend at least 85% of their lives at sea returning to land (usually remote islands) to breed and raise their young.

 

1. Albatross is a type of sea bird. There are 21 species of albatross that live mainly in the south hemisphere. They inhabit Antarctica, Australia, South Africa and South America. Rare species of albatross live in the northern hemisphere and inhabit Alaska, Hawaii and California.
2. Size of albatross depends on the species. They can reach 35 to 51 inches in length and weigh between 17 and 22 pounds.
3. Wandering albatross has a wingspan of 11 feet. This is the biggest wingspan in the world of birds.
4. Body of albatross is covered with white, black, brown, red or yellow feathers. They were used for decoration of hats in the past.
5. Albatross has big head with strong, hooked beak. Since albatross mainly eats slippery prey, beak has sharp blades on the side to prevent loss of the catch.
6. Albatross has excellent eyesight and sense of smell. It can find the prey even in the dark.
7. Albatross is diurnal animal (active during the day).
8. Albatross is a carnivore (meat eater). Its diet consists of different type of fish, krill, crabs and squids.
9. Albatross searches for the prey from the sky. When potential target is detected, albatross rushes toward the water and dives to grab it. Albatross can also catch the prey located on the surface of the water.
10. Albatross is highly proficient in the air. It usually flies by using strong wind currents. This method preserves the energy and ensures longer flights. Flight with the help of wind is known as dynamic soaring.
11. Albatross can reach the speed of 40 miles per hour. It can fly long period of time without rest.
12. Albatross does not have a lot of natural enemies. Besides humans, main predator is tiger shark which hunts young birds that are learning to fly.
13. Albatrosses will gather on the isolated and remote island for mating. They usually breed every 18 months. Certain species are monogamous.
14. Breeding couple has only one egg. Both parents take care of their offspring. They produce oily substance to feed the chick until it becomes capable for eating fish and other sea creatures.
15. Depending on the species, young albatross will become independent at the age between 5 and 10 months. It will leave the ground and spend next 5 to 7 years on the ocean. After that period, it will return to the island to mate.

16. Albatross has very long lifespan. It can survive up to 50 years in the wild.

The poem begins by introducing the Ancient Mariner, who, with his “glittering eye,” stops a Wedding Guest from attending a nearby wedding celebration. The Mariner stops the young man to tell him the story of a ship, providing no introduction but simply beginning his tale. Despite the Wedding Guest’s efforts to leave, the Mariner continues to speak.



The Mariner’s story begins with the ship leaving harbor and sailing southward. A tremendous storm then blows the ship even further to the South Pole, where the crew are awed as they encounter mist, snow, cold, and giant glaciers. An Albatross breaks the pristine lifelessness of the Antarctic. The sailors greet it as a good omen, and a new wind rises up, propelling the ship. Day after day the albatross appears, appearing in the morning when the sailors call for it, and soaring behind the ship. But then as the other sailor’s cry out in dismay, the Mariner, for reasons unexplained, shoots and kills the albatross with his crossbow. 

 

 

 

 

 

At first, the other Sailors are furious with the Mariner for killing the bird which they believed a god omen and responsible for making the breezes blow. But after the bird has been killed the fog clears and the fair breeze continues, blowing the ship north into the Pacific, and the crew comes to believe the bird was the source of the fog and mist and that the killing is justified. It is then that the wind ceases, and the ship becomes trapped on a vast, calm sea. The Sailors and the Mariner become increasingly thirsty, and some sailors dream that an angered Spirit has followed them from the pole. The crew then hangs the albatross around the Mariner’s neck.



In this terrible calm, trapped completely by the watery ocean that they cannot drink, the men on the ship grow so thirsty that they cannot even speak. When the Mariner sees what he believes is a ship approaching, he must bite his arm and drink his own blood so that he is able to alert the crew, who all grin out of joy. But the joy fades as the ghostly ship, which sails without wind, approaches. On its deck, Death and Life-in-Death gamble with dice for the lives of the Sailors and the Mariner. After Life-in-Death wins the soul of the Mariner, the Sailors begin to die of thirst, falling to the deck one by one, each staring at the Mariner in reproach.





Surrounded by the dead Sailors and cursed continuously by their gaze, the Mariner tries to turn his eyes to heaven to pray, but fails. It is only in the Moonlight, after enduring the horror of being the only one alive among the dead crew that the Mariner notices beautiful Water Snakes swimming beside the ship. At this moment he becomes inspired, and has a spiritual realization that all of God’s creatures are beautiful and must be treated with respect and reverence. With this realization, he is finally able to pray, and the albatross fell from his neck and sunk into the sea.





The Mariner falls into a kind of stupor, and then wakes to find the dead Sailors’ bodies reanimated by angels and at work on the ship. Powered by the Spirit from the South Pole, the ship races homeward, where the Mariner sees a choir of angels leave the bodies of the deceased Sailors. After this angels’ chorus, the Mariner perceives a small boat on which a Pilot, the Pilot’s Boy, and a Hermit approach. As they get closer, the Mariner’s ship suddenly sinks, but he wakes to find himself in the Pilot’s boat. When the Mariner speaks, the Pilot and Hermit are stunned, by fear. The Hermit prays. The Mariner, in turn, saves his own saviors, and rows them to land, where he begs the Hermit to grant him absolution for his sins. The Hermit crosses himself, and asks the Mariner “what manner of man art thou?” The Mariner then feels compelled to tell his story.





The Mariner concludes his tale by explaining that as he travels from land to land he is always plagued by that same compulsion to tell his tale, that he experiences a peculiar agony if he doesn’t give in to his urge to share the story, and that he can tell just from looking at their faces which men must hear his tale. He ends with the explicit lesson that prayer is the greatest joy in life, and the best prayers come from love and reverence of all of God’s creation. Thus he moves onward to find the next person who must hear his story, leaving the Wedding Guest “a sadder and a wiser man.”





The poem begins with a description of the Mariner, and immediately attention is drawn to his eyes, and his power to hold the Wedding Guest and force the young man to hear his tale. Here, storytelling needs no introduction, as the Mariner simply starts speaking and begins the story. The false urgency of the wedding is a rather mundane celebration that will pale in comparison to the Mariner’s tale, and to a proper Romantic appreciation of the sun.



The Mariner then launches into the story of his experiences at sea, describing how the ship itself launched into the sea and sailed southward—he indicates the direction by describing the path of the sun. When merry sounds are heard from the wedding feast, the Wedding Guest once more tries to escape the Mariner’s tale, but he remains enthralled.





The Mariner takes the Wedding Guest and the reader abruptly into the natural world, using the changing position of the sun to show the planet’s orientation and vastness at once. With the motif of the wedding, the “mundane” tries to assert itself over the sublimity of nature, but it fails to overpower the story.



But amidst this joyous celebration of the bird, the Wedding Guest suddenly interjects into the story, revealing that while telling this part of his tale the Mariner looks like he is greatly plagued by fiends. The Mariner then shares his tragic mistake and great sin without giving any indication of the reason he did it: with his cross-bow, he shot the Albatross.



This unexplained killing sets in motion the cycle of sin and penance the Mariner must undergo. It is first and foremost a crime against the natural world, and thus against God, for which the Mariner will never be fully absolved. Another way to view this attack on the bird is as another failed attempt to assert the mundane over the sublime. With this idea comes the notion that by killing the bird, the Mariner was fulfilling the constant human desire to interpret. The Albatross was once ethereal, natural and supernatural, crossing boundaries and exhibiting qualities of both worlds, but by killing it the Mariner forces a singular interpretation on it: dead. Nature and the supernatural world will then punish the Mariner for his sin and for his misguided effort to interpret a bird that resists interpretation. (Also note that the Albatross is killed by a cross-bow—adding Christ-like imagery to its death.)



"The rime of ancient mariner" is a poem by Samuel Coleridge which one must have read during the young age.

 

This Blog post is inspired by the above poem.