comparison between The Albatross and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

anna cardaropoli 5f

1798

"God save thee, Ancient Mariner!"

"I shot the albatross"

Comparison between Taylor Swift's song "The Albatross" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

read➛

SUMMARY OF THE "THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER"

Brief synopsys

The poem’s main text concerns an anonymous elderly Mariner who draws a young man away from his companion’s wedding celebration to tell him a story. This story recounts his experience of wrongfully killing an albatross and the harrowing spiritual journey that followed. The Mariner interprets his own tale as a moral allegory about sin and redemption. However, the poem contains numerous references to supernatural agents whose presence complicates this straightforward Christian reading.

SUMMARY OF THE SONG "THE ALBATROSS"

Brief explanation

There’s this woman, the albatross: a bad habit, a bad relationship, a bundle of familiar negatives. People have warned you about this person. She’s bad news, and Taylor, cannot help identifying with her. By the end of the song, the singer herself has assumed the form of the albatross.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Comparison of the verses

He holds him with his skinny hand, 'There was a ship,' quoth he. 'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!' Eftsoons his hand dropt he. He holds him with his glittering eye— The Wedding-Guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child: The Mariner hath his will. The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: He cannot choose but hear; And thus spake on that ancient man, The bright-eyed Mariner.

At the beginning of the song we can feel, thanks to the phrase "Wild winds are death to the candle" that the so called wise men are trying to give a warning to someone; and, if we look closely, it's exactly what the Mariner is doing with the wedding guest. Also an interesting take to the song is "A rose by any other name is a scandal". She is telling us that even if you call it a different name, a scandal will still be a scandal, and so it will still affect people around it. (this could also be taken form Romeo and Juliet, and morphed into this different meaning.)

The Albatross

Wise men once said "Wild winds are death to the candle" A rose by any other name is a scandal Cautions issued, he stood Shooting the messengers They tried to warn him about her

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Comparison of the verses

God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

In the song, she says "cross your thoughtless heart", and it's probably the line that connnects the most with the poem. The mariner, shooting the Albatross has committed a thoughtless action, and will be later punished by wearing the albatross "across" his heart. Furthermore, the lines "She's the albatross" and "She is here to destroy you" are the warnings the wise men are giving; She (Taylor) sees herself as the albatross, an animal whose symbolism is highly contrasting. In fact, it is believed in folklore that this animal represents both a negative and positive symbol; meaning she could be both a saviour and a destruction.

The Albatross

Cross your thoughtless heart Only liquor anoints you She's the albatross She is here to destroy you

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Comparison of the verses

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break the silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, no bigger than the Moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

"And when that sky rains fire on you" "And you're persona non grata" In the first line, she could be pointing towards the part in which all the supernatural events occur. The sky raining fire could be metaphor to the sky becoming so hot after the killing of the Albatross, making it impossible for the ship to continue it's route. In the second line, she is using the latin phrase "persona non grata" to indicate someone whose presence is unwelcome; linking it with the treatment that the mariner got from the others crewmates, who forced him to wear the animal on his heart, as he was the one that brought the bad omen upon the ship by killing the albatross.

The Albatross

And when that sky rains fire on you And you're persona non grata I'll tell you how I've been there too And that none of it matters

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Comparison of the verses

Farewell, farewell! but this I tell to thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. The Mariner, whose eye is bright, Whose beard with age is hoar, Is gone: and now the Wedding-Guest turned from the bridegroom's door. He went like one that hath been stunned, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn.

In the final lines, we have a change in the narration, in fact she goes from speaking in third-person, to first-person, identifying even more with the animal. Then, with the line "The devil that you know looks now more like an angel" she explains how actually the albatross is a form of salvation rather than destruction, if treated correctly. The association she makes between herself and the animal remains the same. That's why, in the final lines of the poem, the Mariner warns the guest, almost becoming the albatross itself. Now, it's up to the people who listen to him to decide whether his warnings are the "salvation" or the "destruction".

The Albatross

The devil that you know Looks now more like an angel I'm the life you chose And all this terrible danger So cross your thoughtless heart She's the albatross She is here to destroy you

THANK you! :)