L'Albratoss - A Lyrical Ballad

L’Albatross    -   A  Lyrical  Ballad

It’s a bird…..It’s a plane…….It’s Albatross

The name Albatross  prompts a flash back  to my high school days in 1970’s the most  famous English poem “The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an English poet.   It’s a pretty great poem with strong human emotions.  Albatross is considered to be a pious, good luck sea bird.  It follows the ship and considered as a good omen by the Mariner aka Captain.

“An Albatross appears and leads them out of Antartic”.  

 An Albatross shows up and steer them through the fog and provide good wind.  

“The ice was all around,

It cracked and growled,

And roared and howled,

Like noises in Sound!

Through the fog it came”.

An Albatross aloft is a spectacular sight. Albatross has longest wingspan up to 11 ft. (3.4 meters).  The wide winged and long lived Albatrosses are rarely seen in land preferring to stay out on the ocean except to raise and mate their young.  The Albatrosses use their formidable wingspan to ride the ocean winds and sometimes to glide for hours without rest or even a flap of their wings.  They also float on the sea surface.  An Albatross has a life span of 50 years.  The Ornithologists are fascinated by Albatross.  They eat fish and drink salt water. An albatross is the most legendary of all birds.

Some people hunt Albatross with a cross bow.

  

“The spirit who bideth by himself

in the land of mist and snow,

He loved the bird that loved the man

Who shot him with his bow”.

Ma Nishada…..don’t shoot the bird that loved man.  It reminds us of Jadayu, the legendary bird from Ramayana that tried to stop Ravana from absconding Sita.

“He prayeth best, who loveth best

All things both great and small;

Dear bird who loveth us

He made and loveth all.”

The poet resembles this prince of cloud and sky –

“ A wind from the South

Propelled the ship

As it returned Northward

Through fog and floating ice”.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a poet, critic and a philosopher most famous for Lyrical Ballads.  He co-authored “Lyrical Ballads” a collection of poems with the famous English poet William Wordsworth.

The poems still retains its hypnotic strength.

           

The name Albatross featured in many works of books, fiction, songs, bands etc. through centuries.

In Herman Melvilles’  “Moby Dick” there is a reference to Coleridge’s Albatross which is extended to fit the narrative’s focus on the symbolic connotations of whiteness.

Albatross studio version – Fleetword Mac is one of the greatest instrumental tracks of all time.  This song is a biggest ever selling Rock instrumental hit in the U.K.   A beautiful, haunting, thought invoking piece of music.

The Lyrical Ballads are romantic poems of Victorian Era.   

“Hymn before Sunrise” is a Lyrical Ballad.

  “Water, water everywhere

    Nor any drop to drink”.

This famous quote water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink is originated from the “Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner”.

In our life there are many things that are plenty like sea water but something with substance and great value like unconditional love is in scarcity.

Sometime we tend to forget the love abstract in nature.  This is a quality I would like to see in our near and dear.

An Albatross that flies high developing its strongest and widest wings is an allegory for me for its sustenance in the orbit for extended long hours like a hardworking species.

Long live Albatross..!!

Let the Lyrical romantic poem like, “Hymn before Sunrise “the Lyrical Ballad conquer centuries.