Origini dell'Albatro

Le origini dell’Albatro

Di Mariozzi Greta

Ho deciso di affrontare questo argomento per rendere giustizia a questa povera creatura che appare in opere letterarie ma di cui nessuno spiega chiaramente origini e simbologia….

Fino a poco tempo fa credevo che l’Albatro fosse un uccello leggendario, legato alla mitologia… invece ho scoperto che è soltanto un povero animale che vive sulle coste dell’Australia, in via di estinzione… divenuto messaggero del buon augurio…

Visto che nessuno ha mai parlato dell’Albatro e delle sue origini - come nella antica tradizione dei “Bestiari Medioevali” - ho deciso di farlo io…

… prendendo ispirazione dalle poesie di Baudelaire e Coleridge, dall’attitudine di questo animale a seguire le rotte delle navi e a passare gran parte del suo tempo in mare… e con un po’ di fantasia…. ho creato la mia storia…

Perché l’Albatro è considerato l’uccello

…

Del buon augurio?

… Perché viene ucciso senza motivo?

1 Poesia Di Coleridge

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”-

Analisi, spiegazione, informazioni generali

2 Poesia di Baudelaire “L’Albatros”

Analisi, spiegazione, informazioni generali

3 Disney… Musica… Cronache di Narnia

4 Cartone Animato

Coleridge – “The Rime of the Ancient mariner”

Life

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a romantic poet.

He was born in 1772 in the small Devon village Ottery Saint Mary. He studied at Cambridge university but he did not take a degree.

In 1797 he met for the first time William Wordsworth – they became really close friends.

They published in 1798 an anthology of their work “the Lyrical Ballads”.

In 1798-99 Coleridge & Wordsworth toured Germany in order to study the language and the philosophy of the country.

In 1800 they sat in the Lake District.

To overcome his sense of failure, Coleridge turned to opium & alcohol. This is also the reason why he broke up his friendship with Wordsworth in 1810.

Colerdige spent the last 20 years of his life at Highgate, near London, in order to put under control his dependence.

Aim of poetry

According to Coleridge, the aim of poetry is making supernatural real. In his poems, in fact, he mixes natural & supernatural elements in order to make the readers doubt about what they’re reading, to reach the “willing suspension of disbelief” and to put imagination at work. Coleridge wants to awake the dull spirits of men and starting from ordinary experiences he creates timeless worlds full of allegories, symbols, images.

The ballad

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a ballad, published for the first time in the collection “Lyrical Ballads”. Coleridge uses the form of the ballad (taken from medieval tradition) because it is good to tell story. Anyway, Coleridge introduces & adds untypical features: the ballad, in fact, is really long; there are 3 levels of narration (the narrator, the mariner, the wedding guest), there is a moral message.

The Ballad is about the story of a mariner who was punished by God after the killing of an albatross (the bird of good omen). His shipmates died for thirst, and the mariner’s penance was wearing the dead body of the Albatross around his neck. After his repentance (blessing of slimy creatures in the moonlight) he was obliged to travel all around the world in order to tell anybody he met, his tale and to send a message of universal love.

Throughout the ballad, we can find a gloomy atmosphere and lots of symbols.

Natural elements, too, have new meanings: the sun is the symbol of am impartial god; the moon stands for catharsis & purification; the ice stands for isolation.

The Albatross is another symbol, too.

The Albatross followed the ship for 9 days, providing the crew with good wind in order to make the ship to go forward. The only thing he asked for, was food.

After 9 days the mariner killed at the Albatross without any rational reason.

The Killing of the Albatross stands for the killing of the bond between man & nature; the killing of imagination; the killing of human qualities such as hospitality & friendship.

The Ballad has also a religious meaning. We can find 4 important steps that lead the mariner to salvation:

• Sin: killing of the Albatross
• Repentance: blessing of slimy creatures
• Penance: the mariner has to tell his story to everyone he meets.
• Salvation: the mariner can come back home.

Some extracts from the Ballad:

“(…)At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
God’s name.

We hailed it in
It hate the food in ne’er had eat,
And round and round it flew.

The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
to the mariners’ hollo!

Came
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through the fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine.»

«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

(…)

And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work ’em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze so blow.

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!

Nor dim nor red, like God’s own head,
The glorious Sun uprist:
Then all averred, I had killed the bird
That brought the fog and mist.

’Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrick;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

And every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root;
We could not speak, no more than if
We had been chocked with soot.

Ah! well a day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!

Instead of the cross, tha Albatross
About my neck was hung.

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gushed from my heart,
And I blessed them unaware:
Sure my kind saint took pity on me,
And I blessed them unaware.

The self same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea(…)”

Charles Baudelaire – « L’Albatros »

Charles Baudelaire a été un poète français, précurseur du décadentisme et symbolisme. C’est impossible de le classer; en effet, il a fait la transition entre le romantisme et l’age moderne.

Il a eu des influences romantiques et parnassiennes, en outre il a été le premier à utiliser des symboles en poésie.

Vie

La vie de Baudelaire n’est pas très longue, seulement 46 ans.

Son enfance a été traumatisante- quand il est né (1821), en effet, son père avait 60 ans et sa mère 26. Quand son père meurt, sa mère s’épouse une autre fois avec un militaire que Charles déteste.