An analysis of the literary works of Charles Baudelaire suggests the bipolar nature of his work – the constant struggle between Good and Evil, which is reflected in the poem “The Albatross”.
The literary direction of the poem is symbolism.
In the traditions of romantic and symbolic art, the poem presents the theme “poet and crowd”. On the one hand, there is an area of nature, freedom, the royal flight of the human spirit, personifying the poet. On the other hand, the field of rudeness and pettiness, captivity and lack of freedom, revealing the world of people (crowds) is revealed. The juxtaposition of these two worlds gives rise to an “all-devouring irony.”
The main plot that permeates the entire work is the statement that the fate of the poet in society is similar to the fate of a captive bird.
Baudelaire is often called the last romantic. This work presents and discloses the “double world” of the poem, as if the poet’s dream comes to life: the frigate, the sea, the blue.
“The Albatross” is a simple and surprisingly clear composition poem (and, as you know, it is the simplest verses that are the most difficult to translate), especially considering the rhythms of the French language. But only the French language, which is the mother tongue for the author, could most fully and accurately express the contradictory nature and tragedy of his troubled soul.
Creating images of literary heroes, the author in this work uses personification and comparison.
The poet personifies the albatross, “the fastest of the messengers”, “a bird whose true life can take place only in heaven, where it freely soars in the clouds, in the midst of thunder and lightning,” feeling absolute freedom; and gigantic wings prevent her from living among ordinary people; very far from romantic impulses. Blind people symbolize human vices. Sailors are the personification of a spiritually crippled society, unable to feel the beautiful, sympathize, dream, love and admire. Blind people and sailors – this is the personification of the crowd (society). But a poet, aspired to the spiritual, to the celestial sphere, is often doomed to a constant misunderstanding of those around him.
This poem reproduces the situation of alienation of an exalted person from society (crowd).