The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

by

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Albatross Symbol Analysis

The Albatross Symbol Icon

The albatross is a complicated symbol within the poem. Historically, albatross were seen by sailors as omens of good luck, and initially the albatross symbolizes this to the sailors when it appears just as a wind picks up to move the ship. Further, birds in general were often seen as having the ability to move between the earthly and spiritual realms, and this albatross in particular—with its habit of appearing from out of the fog—seems to be both natural and supernatural. Thus the albatross can be seen as symbolizing the connection between the natural and spiritual worlds, a connection that the rest of the poem will show even more clearly, and it can further be seen as a symbol of the sublime (the unearthly bird) as it sports with the mundane (the ship).

With the Mariner’s killing of the bird, the symbol becomes more complicated still. First, the killing of the innocent bird, and the Mariner’s line that “Instead of the cross, the Albatross / About my neck was hung,” suggests that the Albatross can be read as a symbol of Christ, with the Mariner as the betraying Judas (particularly as the Albatross is killed by a cross-bow). The dead albatross, also, can be read more generally as a mark of sin.

But as all these symbols build up around the albatross, it also starts to be possible to see the albatross as a symbol of resistance to symbolism: a symbol that is not a symbol of nature but rather something that Coleridge has created to be similar to nature in the sense of its complexity, its resistance to being easily analyzed or pinned down. The poem insists that nature is something to be revered just as God is revered, but that, like God, nature is beyond both the mastery and comprehension of mankind. And in the albatross, with its multiplying potential symbols, Coleridge has created something similar. This idea is further supported by the fact that disaster strikes the Mariner and the sailors precisely after they “interpret” the albatross. The Mariner does so by killing it: what was once so many things, natural and supernatural, has been reduced to just being dead. And the crew then interpret the Mariner’s act as first a crime, and then a justified killing—at which point nature and the supernatural rear up against them, a literal reaction against these men’s “interpretation.”

The Albatross Quotes in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The The Rime of the Ancient Mariner quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Albatross. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
).
Part I Quotes

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

Related Characters: The Ancient Mariner (speaker), Sailors
Related Symbols: The Albatross
Page Number: 61-70
Explanation and Analysis:

'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.

Related Characters: The Wedding Guest (speaker), The Ancient Mariner
Related Symbols: The Albatross
Page Number: 79-83
Explanation and Analysis:
Part II Quotes

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

Related Characters: The Ancient Mariner (speaker), Sailors
Related Symbols: The Albatross, Eyes
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 139-143
Explanation and Analysis:
Part IV Quotes

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 selfsame moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.

Related Characters: The Ancient Mariner (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Albatross, Eyes, The Sun and Moon
Page Number: 282-291
Explanation and Analysis:
Part V Quotes

'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.

Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.'

Related Characters: First Voice and Second Voice (speaker), The Ancient Mariner, The Lonesome Spirit from the South Pole
Related Symbols: The Albatross
Page Number: 398-409
Explanation and Analysis:
Part VI Quotes

It is the Hermit good!
He singeth loud his godly hymns
That he makes in the wood.
He'll shrieve my soul, he'll wash away
The Albatross's blood.

Related Characters: The Ancient Mariner (speaker), Hermit
Related Symbols: The Albatross
Page Number: 508-513
Explanation and Analysis:
Part VII Quotes

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.

Related Characters: The Ancient Mariner (speaker), The Wedding Guest
Related Symbols: The Albatross
Page Number: 612-617
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Ancient Mariner LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner PDF

The Albatross Symbol Timeline in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Albatross appears in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part I
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
The Mundane and the Sublime Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
This silence and lack of life is broken, however, by an Albatross, which the crew hails as if it were a Christian, and believes to be a... (full context)
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
The Mundane and the Sublime Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...giving any indication of the reason he did it: with his cross-bow, he shot the Albatross. (full context)
Part II
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
The Mariner says that after he shot the Albatross, the ship began sailing northward. While the winds still blow, the Sailors feel the absence... (full context)
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
The Mundane and the Sublime Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...that they cannot drink, and they become extremely thirsty. Coleridge’s annotation here notes that “the Albatross begins to be avenged.” (full context)
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...him for what he did. Thus they decide to hang the body of the dead Albatross, in place of a cross, around the Mariner’s neck. (full context)
Part IV
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
The Mundane and the Sublime Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...take pity on him. Finally, he is able to pray, and at this moment the Albatross slips off his neck and into the sea. (full context)
Part V
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
The Mundane and the Sublime Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...voices clarify with one another that the Mariner is indeed the man who shot the Albatross, the bird that was much beloved by the Spirit from the pole. One voice then... (full context)
Part VI
The Natural and the Spiritual Theme Icon
Sin and Penance Theme Icon
Storytelling and Interpretation Theme Icon
Christian Allegory Theme Icon
...absolve him of his sin, “shrieve” (free from guilt) his soul, and wash away the Albatross’s blood. (full context)