It is their longest song
Maiden. Lyrically, it is based on the poem of the same name
(1798, but completed in 1817) by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (1772 - 1834).
Through his poem, Coleridge sketches
and summarizes Christian teaching (moral, divine
judgment, repentance and divine
forgiveness). According
Dickinson, the
his underlying subject
of the poem is the eternal
man's struggle with nature and its elements
and how man is victimized when
attempts to upset the physical balance.
Coleridge's poem opens with
description of a raccoon and old
sailor who stops one of the three
young people
guests of one
marriage and him
urges to
listen to her
its history. THE
young man, which is the means that
used Coleridge to put him
of the central character in the position of narrator, in
authority refuses, but enchanted, initially by
look of the old man and then by herself
the story, sitting to listen.
THE
naval
starts the
his narrative
Saying that
when it started
his journey,
while the sea was very calm. Soon,
however, the weather worsened a great deal
storm swept the ship south, 'in one
place where ice floating in the sea
they surrounded the ship, ice that was coming
at the height of the mast "(obviously
describing Antarctica).
The sailor then goes on to say that
an albatross appeared and began to
flies around the boat, something the icebergs that had it did
cage to crumble. At the same time, a south wind began to blow
which pushed the boat north, into a foggy sea.
Then the sailor in pain admits that
he killed the albatross with his bow because he believed
that this was the cause of the fog. Others
sailors blamed him for this act. In
shortly after, the fog surrounding the ship dissipated and
the other sailors justified his act
and congratulated him, convinced that
the albatross brought not the redemptive wind but
the unwanted fog.
Then a wind blew the ship into the wind
waters of Ecuador, where it was immobilized. The
sailors, tormented by thirst, watched the waters
of the sea to become "thick", as if in decay and
in them to swim numerous "glitz"
creatures. At night, the sea water
it shone green, blue and white, like a "funeral fire". Some
from the sailors dreamed that a spirit followed them from the "earth
of ice ", 9 orgies (approximately 16.5 meters) below the ship. The sailors
they blamed the narrator for their plight and hanged the dead man
albatross on the neck as a symbol of his guilt.
A long time passed and the mouth
of sailors became so dry from thirst
who could not speak. One day,
the sailor saw a dot on the horizon,
a ship that was slowly becoming more and more
visible. Biting his hand, he sucked
his blood to wet his mouth and
shouted “A mast! A mast! " The
sailors smiled, believing that
had been saved, but the sailor wondered how
could this ship move 'without
air on the sails and without flooding ".
As the ship approached, the sailors
they saw his awesome face. The hull
it was "like a skeletal trunk." The
his only crew was Death and
Life In Death, a pale woman
figure with golden hair and red lips,
that "froze the blood" of those who
they faced.
The two of them started playing dice and the woman exclaimed "Him
won! I won him! " Death had defeated the entire crew except for
navy, which had been won by Life in Death. Then, whistle three
times and the sun set immediately, leaving the stars visible. The moon
began to chart its course in the sky, followed by one
star. Then all the sailors, except the narrator, began to die,
"Cursing the navy with their eyes" before their souls leave it
their body. Their souls began to swirl around the navy before
they go where it was appropriate for each one, tearing the air with the sound it makes
arrow leaving the bow, with the sound that meant his death
albatross.
The young man, at that point, interrupts the sailor's narration and
expresses the fear that overwhelms him when
sees the sailor's emaciated hand and
his shiny look. The sailor
assures the young man that he is not
ghost and that there is no reason to him
she is scared, continuing her narration
of its history.
For seven days and seven nights, o
sailor remained on board with
his only companion are the two hundred corpses
of sailors and her 'glittering creatures
of the sea ". At first he tried to
pray, but an 'underworld
whisper "stopped him, making the soul
of "dry as dust". Desperate and
without being able to die, he closed his eyes
because he could not stand the sight of the open
eyes of the corpses, in which he had
remains their mortal curse.
When the moon rose in the night sky, where its shadow fell
ship, the waters took on a reddish color. The creatures of the sea now
they looked so beautiful in the navy, as their scales iridescent under it
silver moonlight. Immediately, he felt able to pray and bless them
sea creatures. Then the albatross fell from his throat,
falling like a "pencil into the sea". Freed from the curse
of the albatross, the sailor was able to sleep, as he broke out valuable,
laxative rain.
The moon was seen through them
clouds and spirits appeared, the
which occupied their dead bodies
sailors and began to carry out
duties of sailors, setting it
ship in motion.
The young man interrupts the navy again
expressing his fear, but he him
reassures before continuing the narrative
telling him that these were goods and
not cursed spirits.
At dawn, the corpses were led away
all on deck and goods
spirits began to leave them
leaving through their mouths,
filling the air with beautiful melody. The
ship, however, did not stop moving,
driven by the spirit that followed
the ship from the "land of ice and its
of snow ».
Suddenly, however, the ship stopped and began to make steep turns
anteroposterior movements, as if in battle. The sailor lost his balance and
fell on deck. Before falling into a coma, he heard two eerie voices. THE
one asked him if he was the one who had killed the albatross while the
another assured him that he had been punished for his act and that he
he waited for another punishment to atone. The two voices began to talk
between them, while angelic forces were moving the ship with tremendous speed.
When the sailor met, he saw the corpses standing together again
deck and look at him. A breeze gave the final push to the boat,
which was found outside the familiar port city of the navy. He
recognized his city and as they approached it, seraphim (light bodies)
began to abandon the corpses of sailors, which fell lifeless
on the deck.
Each seraphim said goodbye to the shocked sailor, who
soon realized the sound of oars. Inside the approaching boat was the
navigator, his son and a hermit. The sailor hoped the hermit would
he could free his soul from the blood of the albatross.
The hermit was a holy man who lived isolated in
forest and he liked to talk to well-traveled sailors. Having seen it
light of the seraphim, he had approached the navigator and his son and had them
ask them to take him to the boat, assuring them that he did not exist
reason to be afraid of the ship being dismantled which so paradoxically could
reach out to the port.
As they approached, the navy ship, as well as the dead albatross
before that, it sank like a "pencil", causing a huge
θαλοσσοδυνία. The sailor was pulled onto the boat and the terrified
The navigator's son began to laugh hysterically, shouting that the ship had succeeded
to get there because the devil knew how to pull a paddle.
On land, the sailor asked him
hermit forgiveness and the hermit him
urged him to tell him his story. After the
sailor told his story, he felt
the agony of his remorse fading.
However, regrets soon
returned without warning and then the
sailor recognized in someone's face
passer-by a man who had to
hear his story.
Suddenly, the church doors
they open interrupting his narration
sailors and wedding guests
poured out. The sailor tells the young man that
whoever loves all the creatures of God lives
happier life and leaves. The youngster
he leaves devastated and wakes up the next morning
as “unhappiest and wisest
person".
In Coleridge's poem it stands out
the superstitious perception of the old sailors, that if they killed one
albatross, misfortune would fall on the ship and the crew. She prevailed
due to the belief that the albatrosses were reincarnations of sailors who
drowned in the sea. Also, a bad omen for them
sailors (whose reference is in the poem) were
and the view of a star that "followed" its course
of the moon in the sky.
