The Albatross

When considering the poem’s form, it is important to remember that we are reading Baudelaire in translation. The poem in the original French consists of four quatrains that have an alternating ABAB rhyme scheme. Though Baudelaire was innovative in introducing traditionally non-poetic subject matter into French poetry, his writing style was classical, even austere. He adhered to the formal rules of traditional French verse, writing in alexandrines, or lines consisting of six iambic feet (or, twelve alternating stressed and unstressed syllables). Although Baudelaire uses this meter in the original poem, translator Eli Siegel chose to forgo the rhyme scheme and alexandrine meter, instead using effects such as consonance and caesurae to emulate the musicality of Baudelaire’s French.

Siegel’s use of consonance accentuates the descriptions of the albatross. For example, the great bird has “wings in white” (Line 7), the alliterative phrase evoking the vast size and beauty of the wings. The emphatic effect contributes to the characterization of the albatross as a majestic creature while introducing musicality to the line. Likewise, in the description “how comic he is and uncomely” (Line 10), the repeated “com” sound speaks to the bird’s clumsy and cumbersome stature on the ground.